A Blank Canvas
by Kalta79
Summary: Further expanding on obsidian's Life Drawing story where Tifa, Aerith, and Yuffie are talked into attending an art class by an elderly neighbor of Reno's, unaware the red-headed Turk is the nude model that day. #Slow Burn #Alternate Universe #Sexual Tension #Loss of Virginity #For a Friend #Awkward Sexual Situations
1. Chapter 1

Reluctantly picking up her paintbrush and taking a deep breath, Tifa started on her canvas. _Is this really the closest I'm going to get to a naked man now_? she thought to herself. _And Reno no less_! Finally losing her virginity to Cloud had left her with a strong desire to experience sex again, but then he half-left her, going off to do who knows what for months at a time, and their shared bedroom had separate twin beds, so Tifa felt terribly lonely and unfulfilled, even when Cloud was there. Staring at Reno's naked body, she couldn't help but compare it to Cloud's and she felt even more frustrated. She let her mind drift off as she painted, imagining herself walking up to Reno and throwing herself onto him, demanding he show her a good time, and feeling that magnificent specimen of manliness impale her over and over again.

"I...I can't do this." Aerith said, setting her brush down. She had managed to paint Reno's face and hair, but the rest of him...she wanted Zack, not this tall and lanky naked man who had a reputation of being shameless when it came to women. She believed it now, he had no trouble being naked in front of people he barely knew, and he was smirking for all he was worth.

Yuffie would have rather seen Vincent naked herself with her virginal eyes, but he had been a Turk once, so she just painted his head on Reno's body. Or at least she meant too...Yuffie's skills did not include painting. "I'm done too. How's Tifa doing?"

Aerith looked behind her at Tifa, who was painting furiously onto her canvas as if possessed. "I guess she's doing fine."

"Well, I wanna go home." Yuffie felt a little hot for some reason and she wanted a cold shower. She walked over to Tifa's canvas. "Hey Teef, can we go now?" Tifa ignored her and continued painting, so Yuffie tapped her on the shoulder, and was startled when Tifa cried out oddly in response. Yuffie had never heard that sound from Tifa, so she stepped next to her. "Are you okay, Teef?" she asked, then gasped in shock when she saw the painting.

Aerith was wondering what could have startled Yuffie so much, so she walked over to the other side of Tifa and gasped as well when she looked at the canvas. "Tifa, what...what have you done?!"

Tifa blinked in distress as she stared at her painting, and Mrs. Beasley came over as well, to see what was going on, and an echo of Reno's smirk appeared on the older woman's face, tinged with satisfaction of how her plan seemed to be successful. "You have talent." she told Tifa as she looked at the painting of a naked Reno posed just as he was, on a bed in the background, with Tifa in the foreground, wearing a robe just like the one Reno had on earlier, and she was starting to take it off, as evidenced by her bare shoulders and the happily expectant expression on Reno's face.

A slow flush creeped up her neck to color her cheeks. "I...I...I have to go now!" Tifa blurted out as she suddenly grabbed the canvas, making sure to grab it from the wooden frame since the paint was still wet.

Yuffie and Aerith stared after her and then at each other. "How are we going to get home now?" they asked each other simultaneously.

"Reno, would you mind being a gentleman again and drive these young women home?" Mrs. Beasley asked. "I'm sure you could fit them in, they're tiny. And you can fit plenty of leftovers in your trunk."

"Sure thing." Reno agreed as he wondered what was up with Tifa as well...she left like she was being chased by behemoths...at least she took her painting.

"You're a hero." Mrs. Beasley told him as she closed the passenger door of his red sports car on Yuffie and Aerith. Their canvases would be delivered to them later when the paint had dried. His trunk was indeed filled with delicious leftovers.

"And don't you forget it!" Reno teased her. "Okay ladies, let's get this show on the road!" he said as he started his car and squealed out of the parking lot.

'Don't you need to know where we live?" Aerith asked him.

"You forget who I am. I know where you both live." Reno reminded her. "So...um...what was Tifa's painting like?"

Aerith and Yuffie both turned red at his question. "I, um...you'll have to ask her that. It's her painting, not ours." Yuffie managed to say.

Reno found their reactions as odd as Tifa's, but he shrugged it off. He was rather amused by the idea of his naked body being displayed in their apartments. Well, he wouldn't like to upset Zack or Cloud, but there wasn't enough art appreciation in the world, he thought as he dropped Aerith off first, then Yuffie, before heading to his own place and stuffing his fridge and freezer full of home-cooked goodness.


	2. Chapter 2

Tifa was still acting like she was being pursued by a herd of behemoths as she ran up the stairs to her apartment, putting her painting down and hurriedly unlocking the door, then grabbed her painting and fled to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. "What...what have I done?" she asked herself as she leaned against her bedroom door to catch her breath, the painting dangling from her hand. She let go of the painting as if it burned her hand, causing the painting to fall rightside up, and she stared at herself stripping for Reno as if mesmerized.

"I...I need a shower!" Tifa blurted out and headed for the bathroom. As she took her clothes off, she felt as if Reno's eyes were really on her and she was disturbed at the part of her that found the notion titillating. As the warm water sluiced over her tense body, she hoped Cloud would be home soon. She needed to get that man into her bed...or any willing man, she reluctantly admitted.

Cloud sighed as he climbed into his sleeping bag. His quest to find out what happened to Zack and reunite him with Aerith was turning out to be a monumental failure so far. And deep down he hoped one day he'd come back home to find Tifa in love with someone else. He loved her dearly, he just wasn't _in_ love with her, and he didn't know how to tell her without breaking her heart, so he just stayed away as much as he could.

Tifa shot a disgusted look at her painting as she got into bed that night. She had propped it up against the wall while it finished drying. She needed to find somewhere to hide it, because she just couldn't bring herself to destroy it, not after she remembered that Mrs. Beasley said she had talent. The painting _was_ realistic, which in itself was a problem. She groaned in frustration with herself and her love life, or more honestly, the lack thereof, throwing the covers over herself and waiting for sleep.

"Tifffffa...Tiiiiiiiiiiiifa...wake up." The persistent voice insisted, and opening her eyes, she was shocked to see Reno sitting on her bed next to her, completely naked.

"What...what are you doing here? How'd you get inside?" she demanded to know, clutching the sheets to her.

"Dr. Love is here to give you a _full_ physical." Reno told her with his customary smirk as he caressed her arm.

"Dr. Love? Reno, get out of here before Marlene and Denzel find you like this!" Tifa pleaded, trying to ignore how good it felt to have him touch her.

Reno put his finger gently on Tifa's lips to silence her. "Dr. Love knows what his patients need." he said before kissing her.

Tifa's resistance faded as his lips on hers made her body react even more. It had been _so_ long since Cloud had awakened her to her own sexuality...if she went along with whatever Reno was doing, the kids would never know, she told herself as she let go of the sheet and he began examining her body. Moans escaped her lips as her desire to keep quiet was overridden by the desire Reno was igniting within her. She closed her eyes to shut out everything but what he was doing to her.

"I've finally figured out what's wrong with you. Are you ready for the cure?" Reno asked.

"Yes!" the word burst out of her as she lay beneath him as if posing for another picture, their red and black hair as entwined as their pale bodies were about to be. Suddenly Reno laughed horribly, and Tifa opened her eyes in surprise.

"Do you really want this?" Professor Hojo asked, holding his wizened penis in his hand.

Tifa woke up screaming and moments later, Marlene and Denzel came bursting into her room. "Auntie Tifa, are you okay?" Marlene wanted to know, worry clearly written over her face.

"I'm...I'm fine, it was just a nightmare." Tifa told them, taking deep breaths to get ahold of herself while shuddering at the thought of being with Hojo. Then she remembered the painting, which the children hadn't noticed in their concern for her. Using her sheet as a makeshift robe, she hurriedly led them back to their own rooms, tucking them in again before going back to her bedroom and shoving the painting in her closet where it would be safe from roaming eyes. Tifa felt slightly better as she crawled back into bed, hoping that mental image of Hojo would cure her from not being able to wait for Cloud much longer.

"You two could have waited, you know. I told you we'd have them delivered to you." Mrs. Beasley told Aerith and Yuffie the next morning as the two young woman covered their paintings and took them off the easels.

"No, these are our paintings, it's our responsibility." Yuffie replied, not wanting to admit that she and Aerith didn't want anyone to know they were painting a naked Reno who was posing in front of them, and after she had time to think about it, she was rather embarrassed that she had painted Vincent's head on Reno's body.

"So are you going to ask Reno to pose for you in private so you can finish your painting?" Mrs. Beasley asked Aerith. "He'd do it if you promised him some good home-cooked meals in return."

"N...n...no. I...I'm just not an artist." Aerith stuttered as she started blushing furiously at the obvious innuendo in the older woman's question and the idea of a naked Reno in her tiny studio apartment with the bedroom and living room occupying the same space.

"You _really_ oughtta get that cherry popped, and **soon**." Mrs. Beasley told Aerith. "You too, young lady." she said as she turned to Yuffie. "You wouldn't believe how good sex is for your complexion. Look at me, you wouldn't know my age by looking at me. I've got one foot in the grave pretty much, but I'm still getting laid and I look **great**!"


	3. Chapter 3

Reno strolled into Seventh Heaven, eager for a relaxing night of booze and babes. He had just finished a tough week-long assignment, and seriously needed to unwind. Sitting down in the stool he had long ago claimed as his, he smiled at the three women. "Hey Tifa, could I have the usual please?" he asked her, and when she went to the taps to pour him a beer, he looked at Aerith and Yuffie. "Hey girls, how's it hanging?" Aerith and Yuffie blushed and their eyes involuntarily glanced at his crotch before looking down at the floor, remembering how well-hung he was. "Cat got your tongue?" he asked when they didn't reply.

"We're...fine." Aerith eventually squeaked. Reno just stared at the both of them for a moment, then shrugged and focused on Tifa.

"Mind pouring me two of those, Tifa?" he asked her.

"Why?" Tifa wanted to know, not happy that Reno picked today to show up again, his very presence was distracting, especially when she was expecting Cloud. "Just finish your first one and I'll refill it."

"It's not for me. It's for whichever woman gets the privilege of my company tonight." he explained with a mischievous grin.

As Tifa put the first beer in front of him, her eyes caught sight of his half-buttoned shirt, teasing her with the glimpse of his bare chest, and she couldn't help but wonder if it was as firm as it looked. She was close enough that if she just moved her hand she could touch him and find out...her hand started to move from the mug to his shirt when she got a hold of herself and snatched it away to pour the second beer. "Hojo!" she muttered to herself, trying to focus on the disgusting older man's body to dispel the unwilling fascination Reno's body held for her. "Here's your beer!" Tifa snapped at Reno, nearly slamming the second beer next to the first before hurrying to her office.

"What's with her?" Reno inquired of Aerith and Yuffie.

"Cloud's coming home." was all they would say.

As soon as Reno left with his latest conquest, Yuffie and Aerith went to Tifa's office and knocked on the door. "It's okay, he's gone." they told her through the door.

Tifa carefully opened the door just enough to look out and confirm the coast was clear, and then she casually walked back to her usual station behind the bar like nothing was wrong.

"How...how much does Cloud's body look like Reno's?" Yuffie blurted out. She felt guilty for asking, but the question had surfaced in her head after the art class, and she told herself it was just because Tifa was the only one of them who had sex, after all her old crush on Cloud had switched to Vincent when she found out that Cloud and Tifa were together...sort of.

"There's no comparison." Tifa frowned, not wanting to think about naked Reno anymore. "Cloud is my soulmate, that's what matters. And he's quite fit, obviously. What you see is what you get." Tifa announced, signaling an end to the uncomfortable discussion.

"Is everything alright, dear? Would you like more wine?" Tifa asked Cloud later that night as they ate dinner by candlelight, with classical music playing softly in the background.

"Uh, no more wine, thanks." Cloud felt horribly uncomfortable at the lengths Tifa had gone to, in what she obviously hoped would be a night of romance. She was beautiful, her hair pulled back with jeweled clips, showing off the smooth lines of her neck, and she wore an elegant blue dress that matched his eyes, the neckline tastefully accentuating her well-formed breasts. Any man would be very happy to have the heart of such a woman, but Cloud just felt...tired. "I think I'm full now."

"Would you like to dance then?" she smiled at him.

"I'm just going to take a shower and go to bed." Cloud replied, then got up and went to the bathroom.

Tifa's smile quavered as she watched him leave the table, and faded entirely as she stood up herself and blew the candles out.

"What...what did you do to our beds?" Cloud asked as he walked into their bedroom and saw them pushed together.

"Feng shui." Tifa answered as she lay in bed wearing her new silk lace lingerie, hoping her last ditch effort would work. Everyone else, except for Yuffie and Aerith was having sex, even Mrs. Beasley had no trouble, why couldn't she have the same luck with the man she loved?

"What's that?" Cloud reluctantly got into his bed.

"It's a special way to arrange your living space to make your life better." Tifa replied. She really didn't know much about it, but it was a better excuse than saying she was desperate for her happily ever after with Cloud. "I missed you." she told him, smiling again as she turned over onto to her side and started to caress his chest.

"I'm...I'm just really exhausted, Tifa." Cloud told her regretfully before turning away from her.

Tifa just lay there staring at his back for a long time, before she hid her face in her pillow to muffle her sobs as she cried herself to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Tifa woke up the sound of Fenrir starting up and shot out of bed, running to the window to see Cloud leaving. She put her hand flat against the window, unbelieving that he was leaving again, and without even looking back. Turning around to face her empty room again, she noticed her phone was blinking. Checking it, she saw that she had a voicemail from Cloud. Afraid of what he might have said, she still started playing back his message.

 _I do care about you, Tifa. I just...don't know when or if I'll be back. Take care of yourself for Marlene and Denzel's sake, please. You deserve to be happy after all you've gone through for my sake._

Cloud sped out of town, hoping that he was doing the right thing. When he woke up before she did, he couldn't help but notice that even with her eyes closed, her face looked like she'd been crying all night, and he couldn't take it anymore. She wanted something he could never give her, and as he quietly packed his bag, he thought about kissing her goodbye, but he was afraid he'd never be able to leave if he did, and their lives would end up just being miserable. So he waited until he was outside to leave the voicemail message.

Tifa went around like a zombie for most of the rest of the day, unsure if Cloud had actually left her for good, or just needed more time. Could he have seen the painting and thought she had cheated on him? The thought terrified her, even though the truth was he had been like this ever since they reunited. She didn't know how she was supposed to help him now.

When Barret dropped Marlene and Denzel off Sunday afternoon, he noticed something seemed wrong about Tifa, but her forced smile unnerved him and he didn't know how to ask where Cloud was, since he only took the kids for the weekend because Tifa had told him Cloud was coming home and she wanted to be alone with him.

Two weeks later, Mrs. Beasley was just getting back from checking her mail when she saw Reno getting home from somewhere as well. "Thanks again for helping out with the art class, you exhibitionist you." she told him teasingly.

"Any time. If you need help again, let me know, I'm almost about to start having to order takeout again." Reno replied with a smile. "Oh, and I'll be entertaining tomorrow afternoon. I'll put my tie on the doorknob again."

"I'll keep that in mind." Mrs. Beasley thought of Tifa's painting and decided to meddle. "Is it Tifa?"

"What? Not a chance!" Reno blurted out, momentarily floored by the question.

"Why not? She's pretty enough, isn't she? Or have you never actually looked at her face?" she continued in a teasing tone.

"She's taken." Reno explained. "And yeah, she's pretty." He thought of how he would have made a play for her long ago if not for Rude's interest and Tifa's own obvious clinging to Cloud. "See you around, Mrs. B." he said as he entered his own apartment.

Picking up her phone, Mrs. Beasley called Tifa to see how she was doing. The older woman instantly noticed how different her voice was, and she was relieved that Tifa reluctantly agreed to play chauffeur to the weekly bingo game at the community center.

"Have you thought about taking more art classes?" Mrs. Beasley asked Tifa as she got into the younger woman's jeep. "You seem to have a great deal of natural talent."

"I don't have time." Tifa replied flatly. "I'm basically a single mother who owns her own business."

The wistful yearning in her voice and the loneliness in her eyes did not escape Mrs. Beasley's attention. "You should try and rearrange your schedule then, I'd like to see what else you can bring out of a blank canvas." she said. "Would you like to come in with me?" she asked when Tifa pulled into the first parking spot she found at the community center.

"I've got to get back to..." Tifa started to say that she had to get back before the kids got home from school, but they were on field trips and wouldn't be back until dinnertime. "I'm...I'm not a bingo person." she said instead.

"I'll need a ride home too, but I won't know how long I'll be here, and then you'd have to come back out here and pick me up. If you stick with me, it'll be easier on you. And you might have fun." Mrs. Beasley gently bullied the younger woman into coming inside with her.

"We were wondering when you'd show up, Ellie." One of the women Tifa recognized as another member of the Stitching Bitches said when Mrs. Beasley sat down next to them.

"Not a chance, Sara." Mrs. Beasley replied in a mock haughty tone. "The blackout's mine this time!"

"Ellie?" Tifa quietly asked Mrs. Beasley as she sat down next to her. She had noticed quite a few of the men were checking her elderly companion out, and she was winking at others. Why were people around four times her age getting more love than she was?

"Short for Elmyra. And if you ever tell anyone that's my full name, I'll tell everyone about your painting." Mrs. Beasley answered. "I much prefer Ellie, but you can still call me Mrs. Beasley if you prefer."

Tifa nodded, then the first round started, and she focused on paying attention to the numbers being called. Mrs. Beasley's comments about her painting made her think of Reno, and the red sliders to cover the numbers on her cards made her think of his hair. Why did other women think that jerk was so great? Remembering what kind of body he had, she already knew the answer. She hadn't told Yuffie the truth, Reno's body looked better to her than Cloud's did. There was just more of him to explore and...Mrs. Beasley suddenly nudged her and she realized one of her cards had won. "RENO!" Tifa called out, holding up the winning card. Aware of what she had blurted out, her cheeks turned crimson as everyone stared at her. "I...I mean BINGO! Reno is...um..."

"It's another gaming place where you always win gifts that keep on giving." Mrs. Beasley salaciously finished for her.

"I can't believe I did that." Tifa said as she drove Mrs. Beasley home.

"You shouldn't be ashamed of your feelings for Reno." the older woman told her. "He's a good-looking young man with a steady high-paying job, and a libido that will never disappoint. What's not to like?"

"The only thing I feel for him is contempt!" Tifa lied. "Besides, I've got a good man already. Someday soon Cloud will realize how much he loves me and come back." she said with some difficulty.

"I'd like to thank you for today. Why don't you bring Aerith and Yuffie over tomorrow afternoon for tea?" Mrs. Beasley asked. "It would mean a lot to me."

"I'll...I'll think about it." Tifa replied. She felt bad that the most social activity she had lately was hanging out with an octogenarian. What had happened to her?


	5. Chapter 5

Tifa looked at her phone as she ate her breakfast after seeing the kids off to school. She was torn about wanting a girl's day out, even if it was just afternoon tea at an elderly woman's apartment, but Reno lived right next door to her, and she wasn't sure if that was a good idea. "Are you afraid of Reno? That's ridiculous!" Tifa argued with herself. "He's just a guy I saw naked and painted him that way, that's it." Grabbing her phone, she called and asked Aerith and Yuffie if they'd like to go to tea at Mrs. Beasley's. Yuffie had no trouble, but Aerith was more hesitant.

"That sounds fun, but I just hope she doesn't bring up my painting again." Aerith said.

"What do you mean?" Tifa asked, curious.

"She told me I should finish it, and that Reno would model in private for me if I fed him in exchange." Aerith explained.

"I don't know why she would, and we'll change the topic if she does." Tifa promised and hung up, feeling better that she wasn't the only one whose painting the older woman talked about. "Food? That's all it takes to get him to pose? He would be that easy..." Tifa muttered to herself, remembering all the food at the art class.

The young women arrived promptly at 1pm for tea as Mrs. Beasley requested. When she opened the door to let them in, Reno's door opened as well, and his hand snaked out to hang a tie on his doorknob, then the door slammed shut and they heard a deadbolt slamming shut as well.

"What was that about?" Yuffie asked.

"Men." Mrs. Beasley smiled indulgently to suggest it was just one of Reno's quirks. "Please come in."

"You have a beautiful apartment, Mrs. Beasley." Aerith said as they walked inside.

"Thank you. That's one of the advantages of being old, you end up with a lot of pretty things. And please, call me Ellie." the elderly woman told them. "We're going to have to have tea in the spare bedroom, I'm afraid. It's the only room big enough for all four of us and the goodies." she lied as she led them there. They could have done it in the dining room, but the wall was thinnest in here.

"That's quite a spread." Tifa remarked as she looked at all the food spread out on the bed. The tea was on top of the dresser.

"Us Stitching Bitches love to cook too." Ellie explained. "Please, take a seat."

There were three chairs with a small fold up table in front of them, near the thin wall between her apartment and Reno's. Her own chair was by the dresser with the tea service on top of it.

"You have the Xingalai china!" Yuffie finally noticed the pattern on their tea cups. "Where'd you get this?"

Ellie smiled at her excitement. "I thought that would interest you. My great-grandmother was given this set as a wedding present."

Suddenly they all heard Reno's voice through the wall. "Have you been a good girl?" he asked in a tone of voice the three young women had never heard before.

"Oh no, I've been a baaaaaaad girl." a female voice replied, then a low moan came through the wall and other indefinable sounds.

"What's...what's that?" Aerith wondered, even though they all knew she didn't need to ask.

"You'll notice the shell pink glaze that overlays the blue cranes, this was custom ordered from Wutai and each piece has their wedding date and initials on it. It is truly a one of a kind set." Ellie explains, pretending that Aerith had been asking about her china. "Unfortunately one of the saucers disappeared, so it's not a complete set. But it's very rare nonetheless, isn't it, Yuffie?"

"You know what happens to bad girls?" Reno asked.

"Oh, I know I deserve to be punished!" the woman replied.

"Yuffie? Why don't you tell them how rare this Wutaian china is?" Ellie requested as a muted sound of what they thought was flesh being slapped came through the wall. "Yuffie? Are you okay?"

"The Xingalai china hasn't been made for a hundred years, the factory was destroyed when a rebel faction attempted a failed military coup against the House of Kisaragi." Yuffie says in a strained voice. "Can't you hear that, Mrs...I mean Ellie?"

"Hear what?" Ellie asked innocently.

"Reno's having sex!" Tifa accused her.

"Oh, did I forget to warn you? He and his women can be quite loud, so I just quit wearing my hearing aid when I'm home. Old age, you know. Don't pay any attention to him, he's just too busy having a blast with all the wrong women to realize he needs to find the right one." she smiled benevolently at the three young woman. Tifa was extremely fidgety in her chair, Yuffie looked a bit confused, and Aerith blinked constantly while her cheeks were redder than an apple. "I have other Wutaian treasures if you'd like to see them."

"Yes, I would." Aerith stood up, needing to get out of that room.

"Me too." Yuffie reluctantly stood up as well and joined them by the door. She knew it was wrong to listen, but it made her feel...different...and she was curious.

"Tifa?" Ellie asked sweetly.

Tifa wasn't listening to her, she was looking down at the floor, muttering Hojo's name over and over again, wondering why it wasn't working this time as she heard Reno's woman get louder and louder. She couldn't help but picture herself in that woman's place, having his well-formed body cover hers as he thrust into her again and again, until she...""Hojo, Hojo, HojOOOOOH!" Tifa cried out just as Reno's woman did, causing her friends to stare at her in surprise. "I...I need some fresh air!" she said and rushed out to the balcony.

"Fresh air sounds good." Aerith said and followed her.

"What was that?" the blonde asked Reno as he unlocked the handcuffs.

"I dunno, I'll go check on her in a minute. My neighbor's an elderly lady." he explained. "But I'm gonna go have a cigarette on the balcony now. Those handcuffs weren't too tight, were they?"

"Nope. If they had been, I would have let you know. Or I would have just sent my sister after you." the blonde smiled mischievously. "Bertha would make mincemeat out of you. "Can I take a shower before I get dressed?"

"Yeah, just use the blue towels. The white ones are mine." he said as he headed out to the balcony, disbelieving any woman could best him in a fight.

"Tell me about Cloud." Ellie asked Yuffie once they were alone and looking at the older woman's jewelry collection.

"Cloud?" Yuffie hadn't expected that question. He had been on her mind more than she liked lately. She hadn't thought much about Vincent, her painting his head on Reno's body had turned out to pretty much ruin both men for her as romantic prospects. "He's um...only a few inches taller than us. And he's got blonde hair, and sky blue eyes."

"I didn't mean his appearance." Ellie noticed how Yuffie slightly blushed as she talked about him. "Tell me about his relationship with Tifa."

"They were childhood sweethearts, and now they're living together and raising two kids." Yuffie replied.

"Now when the last time you saw Tifa so smiley and happy for no reason?" she asked Yuffie, getting more direct since Yuffie didn't seem to understand what she was driving at.

"Never." Yuffie answered her honestly.

"And Cloud, how often do you see him happy?" Ellie continued her questioning.

"Never." Yuffie repeated. "But it's not like I see him alot or anything."

Mrs. Beasley gave Yuffie an appraising glance as her voice slightly changed when she clarified her answer. "Would you like to see him more and make both of them happy?"

"How?" Yuffie asked her.

"My husband gave me these cherry earrings in front of my entire family to commemorate my becoming a woman on my sweet sixteenth as a joke. It was soon after they discovered I truly wasn't and we got married." Ellie said. "There's no more personal gift you can give your beau, and if you play your cards right and he's the honourable sort, he's not going anywhere." she said suggestively putting them into Yuffie's hand.

"I...I couldn't do that to Tifa. She'd never forgive me." Yuffie pointed out.

"If she and Cloud aren't happy together, she'd never forgive herself for wasting their lives in a miserable relationship." Ellie retorted. "And if nothing else, maybe this will be the wake-up call Cloud needs to be happy with Tifa. It's just like sex for the first time, at least when it's right. It'll hurt at first, but the payoff is more than worth it."

"What's been going on with you, Teef?" Aerith asked her gently as they stood on the porch.

"I don't want to be alo..." Tifa was interrupted by Reno's sliding glass door opening as he sauntered onto his porch, still naked, and plopped down in a chair there, grabbing the lighter and pack of cigarettes on the little glass table next to the chair and having his smoke. He noticed Aerith and Tifa staring at him.

"Oh hey you two. Is Mrs. B okay?" he asked with genuine concern. "I heard an odd noise coming from her place a moment ago."

Aerith looked like she had just swallowed a bug while Tifa let loose. "Can't you ever be decent and put some damned clothes on?" she spat at him. "Not everyone needs to see what a great body you have!"

Not understanding what her problem was, he snapped back. "Hey, you've already seen all this. If you don't like it, don't look. This is **my** balcony and you don't even live here, lady."

Tifa didn't even understand why she was mad herself, so she stormed back inside. "I'm going home now, anyone else wants a ride, this is your last chance!"

"I'm ready to go." Yuffie said with a guilty look on her face as she stuffed something into her pocket.

"Thank you for inviting us." Aerith told Ellie as they were leaving.

"It was fun, and think about what I said." Ellie replied before she closed the door.

"Think about what? What did she say to you?" Aerith asked Yuffie.

"Just some relationship advice." Yuffie answered, looking down at her hands and starting to fidget with them.

"But you're not in a relationship." Aerith remarked as they got into Tifa's jeep.

"That's what she thinks my problem is." Yuffie explained.

"Just stay away from Reno." Tifa vented. "He's..." she couldn't finish, because she wasn't sure if she was mad at him for having sex or Cloud for abandoning her.

Cloud was surprised to get a text from Yuffie a few days later. He was glad it wasn't from Tifa or Aerith at least. _Could you help me with something at my Wutai penthouse?_ it said. Even though he was worried it might be about Tifa, he replied asking when she needed him there. He preferred Yuffie's company out of Tifa's friends, since she was the only one who never made him feel guilty for anything, even though Tifa didn't understand his feelings, and Aerith didn't know he felt guilty about his failure to reunite her with Zack.

Reno stared at his phone in disbelief. _I want to make a trade with you._ Why would Tifa text him something that sounded like such a blatant proposition? Interested in finding out what was going on, he replied that he'd be free next week and would meet her at her apartment.


	6. Chapter 6

Tifa stared at the mess in her kitchen in a daze when she was done cooking. Why was she doing this? She had asked herself that question countless times and still didn't understand what had possessed her to invite Reno over for the sole purpose of painting his naked body again. Even though she hadn't told Ellie, she had tried painting other things, but they didn't turn out as good as her one of Reno and herself had, which she had hidden so the children wouldn't accidentally find it. She sighed and carried the food-laden dishes into the living room. He had been considerate enough to say he'd come over while the children were at school at least. A knock on the door startled her and she glanced at the clock.

"Just a minute!" she called out and hurried to the bathroom to brush her hair and tie it back. She decided to not clean any of the cooking mess off her, to keep Reno from getting ideas. "Come in." she said tightly when she opened the door and he stood there in his Turks' uniform looking expectantly at her.

"What'd you want to trade?" he casually came right to the point when she closed the door.

"You can take all this home-cooked food home if you'll let me paint you again." Tifa blurted out, gesturing at the coffee table full of food.

A smile broke out on Reno's face as he fought back a laugh. "That's all you wanted? If you wanted to see me naked again, you could have gotten that for free."

Fighting the urge to deck him, she unclenched her fists and clenched her teeth instead. "This is for art, not for the cheap sex you favor."

"I'm easy, I'm not cheap." Reno retorted. "If you want me to model for you, I don't want to hear any more snide comments about how I live my life."

"Fine." Tifa was surprised that he might be sensitive about his personal life. Reno always seemed so careless and crude to her. "I'll go get my supplies while you get ready."

"Okay, you've got a deal." Reno was half-undressed before Tifa had left the living room. "Where do you want me?" he asked when she came back.

"Put this on and just get comfortable on the couch." Tifa handed him a tie.

"You want me to wear a tie?" Reno was dumbfounded.

Tifa held back a smile. "Yes, I'm going to paint you with a tie."

"Fine, but I want an extra pie." Reno pouted as he contented himself with making as lewd a pose as possible on her couch, but it was tough plaid fabric, not leather or suede, meant for handling rambunctious kids, not naked flesh, and he had to rearrange himself to feel comfortable.

"Done. Let me know if you need a break." Tifa said as she made sure she had all her brushes and paints, and that her water cup was full, trying to avoid looking at his naked body until she had to.

It was rather boring just sitting there, so Reno's eyes wandered the room, mostly often studying Tifa as she painted, and eventually he caught sight of something in the fireplace that was just for show. It was sticking down from the chimney, like someone had either shoved something up there or had tried to shove something down. It was barely visible, but his trained eyes easily spotted it.

Finally Tifa put her brush down. "That's enough, the children will be home from school soon and I've got enough done that I can finish it without more help from you." she informed him.

"Okay. What's wrong with your fireplace?" he asked her.

"What...what do you mean? Nothing's wrong with the fireplace!" Tifa said in a rather high-pitched voice as she paled and then blushed, before standing in front of it with her arms spread out. "You can get dressed and leave now!"

Reno looked askance at her. "What are you hiding in there? Are you recording this or something?" He reached over her arms and grabbed hold of whatever it was and tugged down as she futilely tried to stop him. Her first painting now sat there in the fireplace for him to gawk at. "You...you did this?"

"Okay fine, yes I did. Now you've seen it, and you can get dressed and leave!" Tifa snapped in furious embarrassment.

"Well if you're that interested in modeling for me..." Reno's customary smirk appeared. "It would only be proper for me to let you. Tomorrow at my place, same time as today. You've done me twice now, it's only fair that I get a crack at doing you too."

"I don't want to model for you! It's just a painting!" Tifa nearly yelled.

"A painting that you tried to hide." Reno calmly pointed out. "So it'll just be our little secret. And please bring the rest of the food tomorrow." he requested as he got dressed as quick as he got naked, grabbing one of the casserole dishes. "I don't have time to take the rest of this, I've got to get back to work. Thanks for today." he said, leaving before she had a chance to refuse.

"Bastard!" Tifa exclaimed as she heard him rush down the stairs. How could he have found the painting? And why did she even invite him over in the first place? Did she really want him to find it? She didn't even need him there to paint him, she had her first painting to use as a template. What the hell was wrong with her? Maybe it was because she hadn't heard from Cloud in nearly a month since he had left, and her worry was making her do weird things.

* * *

The knock on her door started butterflies fluttering in Yuffie's stomach, and she took a deep breath. It wasn't until Aerith told her that Cloud might have left Tifa for good that Yuffie had texted him, but she still felt guilty, so she told herself to find out how Cloud felt first. "Come in!" she called out, making sure her kimono was tied properly.

"Um, hi." Cloud said as he walked in. "What...what did you need help with?" He felt awkward being in such a luxurious penthouse, with Yuffie dressed in a silk kimono tastefully handpainted with cherries, and he wanted to find out what was going on so he could leave and continue with his search for Zack.

"First we have to have tea. It's how things are done here." Yuffie explained, and gracefully gestured for him to sit as she began the social ritual. "So when are you and Tifa getting married?" she calmly asked as she sipped the cherry blossom tea.

Cloud nearly spit his own tea out. " _ **WHAT**_?! Who told you that?"

"My apologies." Yuffie bowed her head briefly. "I thought you two were meant for each other."

"Tifa thinks we are." Cloud said.

"And what do you think?" Yuffie wanted to know.

"She's my best friend and I don't want to hurt her, but I don't love her the way she wants." Cloud regretfully stated, finally admitting his feelings out loud. Wanting to change the uncomfortable subject, he looked at all the pastries Yuffie had available. "Did you make all this yourself?"

"No." Yuffie sheepishly admitted. "I had help." The Stitchin' Bitches had helped her out since she didn't have a domestic bone in her body, having always had servants to do things for her. Even when she struck out on her own, she found she couldn't cook a decent meal to save her life.

"Oh." Cloud felt stupid for even asking now. Her father was the ruler of Wutai, of course she didn't need to do anything for herself when she was home. They both indulged themselves in small talk and Cloud started feeling more comfortable, not noticing that Yuffie was getting closer and closer to him.

"So do you like the food, Cloud?" Yuffie asked him.

"Mmm-hmm." Cloud manages to say with his mouth half-full of a cherry turnover, and he hastily tries to finish it. He didn't understand why the pastries were all cherry, but they were good. "It's all great, but..." he was about to tell her he didn't know why she was doing this, but she interrupted him.

"But there's one more cherry you need to have." Yuffie finished his sentence for him, and untied her kimono with slightly trembling hands, and Cloud was shocked to realize she was completely naked underneath it and almost choked on his last bite of turnover.

"What's...what's going on here?" he was totally dumbfounded.

"I want us to be going...to my bedroom." Yuffie wasn't at all confident in her role as seductress despite the pointers from Ellie Beasley, and Cloud's obtuseness wasn't helping her nervousness.

"You...and me?" Staring open-mouthed at her naked body, Cloud wondered when the young Wutaian had turned into a woman. She had been fifteen when they first met.

"Yes." Yuffie sighed and decided to be even more direct, leaning forward to kiss him.

Her inexperience even when it came to kissing was obvious, Cloud thought, finding himself more touched by her bold innocence than her attempts at subtle seduction as his body started to react. She was so...fresh...and it had been so long...he tried refocus his thoughts. This was Yuffie, one of Tifa's best friends and the daughter of the leader of Wutai. Whose naked body was now in his lap as his hands unwillingly started to caress her, and he became aware of the exotic scent of her. "Are...are you sure?" he heard himself ask, feeling his resistance fade.

"Yes!" Yuffie repeated firmly. His hands were making her start to feel things that she had only felt while listening to Reno have sex. That reminded her that Cloud still had his clothes on. Eager to see what his naked body looked like, she started trying to undress him as he carried her to her bedroom.

Cloud gently laid her down on her silk sheets before he finished taking his clothes off. He wanted to be gentle with her since it would be her first time, but his urgent need for release intensified as his naked body covered hers. Yuffie tried to cry out as he forced himself into her, but he crushed his mouth against hers. The pain soon faded and was replaced by pleasure, just like Ellie had promised her. It grew and grew as Cloud continued thrusting into her, then he made a noise that was a half-groan and half-grunt as he gave one final thrust, and his body collapsed onto hers, shuddering with not only physical relief, but the release from guilt he always felt about Tifa.

"So good...so fresh." Cloud muttered before falling asleep. Yuffie lay pinned under him with a confused look on her face, wondering if this was as good as sex was supposed to be. Cloud obviously enjoyed it, but she had gotten the idea that she should have felt more.

* * *

"Thanks for bringing the food." Reno said when he opened the door to a food-laden Tifa and helped her carry the dishes into his kitchen.

"You have a nice place." Tifa was surprised that Reno's apartment was tastefully decorated. She always thought of him as such a slob that his place would just be one big garbage dump.

"I'm not here enough to afford to have it be messy." he replied, enjoying surprising her.

"Where..." Tifa swallowed hard. "Where do you want me to model for you?" she asked once the food was all put away.

"In the living room." Reno leered at her. "There's a robe in the bathroom for you."

Tifa quietly went to the door Reno pointed out and was glad to get away from his salacious glances for a few moments. The bathroom was just as classy as the rest of his condo, and it bothered her even further to have conflicting evidence about what kind of person Reno was. His tactic about getting her to model naked for him was what she expected from him, but the place he actually lived in was nothing like she had envisioned. Even the robe he had picked out for her, it wasn't cheap or tacky. She shook her head and got undressed. She just needed to get through this day and put him behind her, she thought as she put on the elegant blue silk robe that she felt beautiful in. She took a deep breath and opened the bathroom door, reminding herself she didn't need to be ashamed of her body, even if Cloud's disinterest made her wonder what was wrong with her. Lifting her head high, she walked into the living room. "What...what do you think you're doing?" she asked Reno.

"I thought you'd be more comfortable if I was naked too." Reno smirked at her, covering his own surprise at how good she looked in the robe. Her pale complexion made her look even more beautiful, as a slight flush colored her cheeks.

"Where are your art supplies?" Tifa asked testily, telling herself that he was nothing but an exhibitionist dick, and she was a fool for letting herself question that.

"I'm just going to draw you today. I need your body as much as you needed mine." he told her, holding up a sketch pad.

"Let's get this over with." she said tightly, glaring at him as she untied the robe and let it fall to the ground.

"No, don't take it all off at once." Reno said, coming over to her and covering her back up except for her shoulders. "You're going to take your time exposing yourself to me, okay?" he smirked.

"You want me to do a striptease for you? This isn't a damned game!" she snapped, not wanting to admit the unwelcome thoughts in her head caused by their being alone and naked together.

"You agreed to model for me. I'm telling you how I want you to model." Reno replied pompously as he sat back down and started drawing on his sketch pad.

Tifa frowned and just stood there, her eyes glued to Reno's naked body and noticing that he wasn't even aroused. Was he that used to being surrounded by naked women or _was_ there actually something wrong with her? First Cloud continuously rejects her, now Mr. Skank wasn't even interested? Men never seemed to mind looking at her, but why did none of them ever touch her? Unbidden tears came to her eyes.

"Okay, now you can show off those boobs." he told her. "Tifa? Lower the robe more." Reno stood up and approached her again when she didn't respond except to turn her head away. "Tifa?" he repeated her name.

"Fine." she sullenly replied and exposed her breasts. "Happy now?" she turned her head back to him with an indefinable expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked when he saw her tear-filled eyes.

"Like you care." she fired back. "Just finish drawing me so I can go home."

"Hey, if you want to leave, you can get dressed and go now." Reno told her almost contritely. He didn't mind playfully harassing Tifa, but unwilling women crossed a line with him. This wasn't how he liked to make women cry.

"Why don't you want me?" Tifa angrily demanded to know.

"I don't want women who don't want me." Reno firmly replied.

"I...I do want you!" she blurted out, embarrassed that she finally admitted it. "Satisfied?"

"Oh, we'll both be satisfied soon enough." Reno said before he kissed her, and Tifa felt herself melt as she felt him hard against her. She would finally be loved...


	7. Chapter 7

Tifa woke up feeling incredibly satisfied and contented, and when she felt the naked male body next to hers, her heart leapt up and she hopefully blurted out the first name that came to mind. "Cloud?"

"I'm definitely feeling on Cloud 9 myself...that was quite a night." Reno turned over and playfully fondled her breasts. "You up for some breakfast now?"

Tifa's heart now plunged into her stomach as she stared into his impish blue eyes. "Reno!" she nearly shrieked.

"You said that more convincingly last night...over and over again." he grinned. "If you're not up to eating, feel free to take a shower, but the white towels are mine, any other color is for guests."

"What...what happened?" she asked in a stunned voice.

"You'd rather have a reminder? We can do that too." Reno kissed her and his hands started to explore her body again.

Tifa automatically started to respond to him, her body loving his expert touch, but then she remembered herself and pushed him away. "I...I need a shower!" she exclaimed and jumped out of his bed and into the bathroom, nearly slamming the door shut.

Reno stared at his closed bathroom for a moment and then shrugged. "Whatever. I guess I will have breakfast now after all." he said as he headed for his kitchen.

Tifa turned on the cold water full blast as she stepped into the shower. She hated cold showers, but the thought of warm water coursing down her body was too much like Reno touching her. Seductive images of the night before flashed through her head, heating her body up despite the cold water, and she hurriedly washed herself and got out, grabbing the first towel she saw, wrapping it around herself. Deciding to confront Reno, she found him in the kitchen munching on some of the food she had brought for him. "What...what did you do to me?" she demanded accusingly.

"You used one of _my_ white towels?" he paused with the fork halfway to his mouth. "I told you not to. Just don't do it again." he told her sternly, deciding to let it go this time.

"How could you have taken advantage of me?" Tifa ignored his towel remarks.

"Hey, if anyone was taken advantage of, it was me. Or don't you remember how it started?" Reno casually finished his bite of meatloaf.

"I would _never_..." Tifa stopped mid-sentence as her memory sharpened of the night before.

 _Reno's body was just as firm as Tifa had thought, enjoying the feel of him under her hands as she positioned herself on top of him. A smug smile appeared on her face as her desire for him took over."Now I finally get to see how great a lover the legend really is." she heard herself say. Tifa couldn't help moaning as she guided him into her...she had needed this for so long, and they were only just beginning._

"So you do remember." Reno remarked as her cheeks turned red. "You rode me like a bucking bronco. And you might want to think about trimming your nails more."

The red on Tifa's face deepened as she finally saw the scratch marks on him. Did she...? "I...you..."

"At least you finally let me take the lead." Reno grinned again.

" _I guess you have earned your reputation." Tifa managed to say as she recovered from her latest orgasm._

" _Damned straight!" Reno exclaimed. "But the night's not over yet..." he told her as he covered her body with his._

 _Tifa eagerly talked dirty for him when he requested it. Her body couldn't seem to get enough of him, and thankfully he had the stamina to keep going. This was the best thing that had happened to her in a long time, she thought as she dug her nails into his back when she climaxed again._

"How could I have done this to Cloud?" Tifa cried out in dismay.

"What?" Reno was taken aback by her bringing him up. "What's he got to do with anything?"

"I love him, that's what!" Tifa snapped. "We'll be married one day! If I can get him to ever forgive me for last night."

"Don't hold your breath." Reno told her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tifa felt herself getting angry. "Cloud's a good man, he should understand."

"Oh I'm sure he'll understand, but don't kid yourself about your future with him." Reno explained.

"Why am I even talking about this with you? You only know sex. You've never known what it feels like to be in love!" Tifa retorted, stung by his behavior.

"I've lost count of how many women I've loved." Reno calmly took another bite of meatloaf. "And obviously Cloud isn't taking care of business with you or you wouldn't be here now. Hell, I can't remember when I last met a woman as horny as you. And everyone knows he's hardly ever home with you. How can you still think he wants to be with you?"

Reno's brutally honest words hurt Tifa even more, and before she knew it, she had slapped him quite hard, his flesh being struck sounding almost like a gunshot in his gourmet kitchen. "I think being with you was the worst thing that ever happened to me!" she lied.

Reno's eyes glinted with anger. "Get dressed and get out then." he told her in a dangerously cold voice.

Ellie Beasley was feeling very smug as she opened her door to get the morning paper. Tifa had finally stayed the night with Reno, and she congratulated herself on a job well done. Even without the thin walls, she recognized the young woman's voice during her wild night with Reno. Suddenly his front door opened and Tifa half-stumbled out as if she was pushed, and then the door slammed shut as Tifa put her shoes on. She ran past Ellie on her way to the stairs, and the older woman couldn't help but notice Tifa's tear-stained face and her wet hair. Concerned, Ellie went to Reno's door and knocked as loud as she could.

"Go fuc...oh, it's you. Sorry Mrs. B, but this really isn't a good time." Reno said and started to close the door.

"I saw that much. What happened?" she quickly asked.

"It's the first time a woman ever regretted having sex with me." Reno said before slamming his door shut again.

Ellie stood there for a few moments, frowning. This wasn't how things were supposed to be. Tifa was obviously hurting, and Ellie knew Reno well enough to tell that he was upset too. Had her meddling backfired? Her husband Jack had often told her while he was alive that she'd take it too far one day...


	8. Chapter 8

Tifa wiped her eyes as she sat in her jeep waiting for the traffic light to change. She had regretted the slap and insult right away, but Reno had no right to be so cruel to her. How dare he say Cloud would never marry her! Her growing self-righteous anger overrode not only her guilt, but also the small voice inside her that also doubted she and Cloud were meant to be that she frequently ignored. Parking in front of the bar, she jumped out of her jeep and hurried upstairs to her apartment, hoping Marlene and Denzel were alright. Having remembered she left them alone all night brought back her guilt. She unlocked her front door and rushed inside.

"Aerith! What are you doing here?" Tifa was stunned to see her friend having breakfast with Marlene and Denzel.

Aerith was stunned as well to see Tifa so obviously disheveled and upset. "Um, why don't you take a nice shower and we can talk later? These two need to go catch the bus." she continued, looking at Marlene and Denzel.

"Yes, Aunt Aerith." they agreed, grabbing their backpacks and heading out the door, passing by Tifa as she went to her bathroom. "Glad you're home, Aunt Tifa."

It felt good to have a nice warm shower in her own apartment, but she was still confused, if relieved, about why Aerith was there to watch the kids, since she hadn't called her. She took her time, trying to wash all memory of Reno off her. Finally she felt clean and calm enough and wrapped her hair in a towel and put her bathrobe on before finding Aerith in the living room, watching TV. "Who called you?" Tifa asked her, sitting down next to her.

"Reno sent me a text last night saying you wouldn't be coming home and I should come over to make sure Marlene and Denzel were okay. What happened?" Aerith wanted to know.

"He did **what**?" Tifa stared disbelieving at her friend. "How did he find the time? We were..." she clamped her mouth shut before she blabbed everything.

"You were what? Teef, what's going on here?" Aerith asked worriedly.

"I was...we were...um...working." she said lamely, trying to figure out not only a better excuse, but why Reno would act out of character and make sure Marlene and Denzel were safe. The surface calmness she achieved with her shower disappeared, replaced by confusion about Reno's conflicting behavior.

"You've been acting really strange lately, now you stay out all night without letting the kids know and come back looking awful." Aerith said. "What is going on with you?"

"I..." Tifa's cheeks reddened . "I don't want to talk about it."

"You're going to tell me and you're going to tell me now." Aerith put her hands on her hips and demanded answers in her best imitation of the tone her own mother would use when Aerith was in her naughty child phase.

Knowing Aerith wouldn't let it go, Tifa lowered her head before answering. "I...I had sex with Reno." she muttered almost under her breath.

"What?" Aerith wasn't sure she heard correctly.

"I had sex with Reno!" Tifa blurted out as her cheeks turned even redder.

"Oh." Aerith wasn't sure what she was expecting Tifa to tell her, but this definitely wasn't it. "Does that mean..."

"I still love Cloud...I don't know how Reno could do this to me!" Tifa exclaimed before she started confessing everything, how it all started with the nude modeling, and ended up with a night of constant raunchy sex.

Naked men had been unwillingly on Aerith's mind since the art class, and she couldn't help but want more details from Tifa. With Zack still missing, she could only experience romance vicariously through her friends, she thought as she fidgeted with the promise ring he had given her. "What was it like having sex with Reno? What's his body really like in action?"

"He's...he's incredible." Tifa reluctantly admitted, too distraught to hold anything back or notice Aerith started blushing as well as she got specific.

"I wonder if Zack could do that." Aerith murmured to herself as Tifa's descriptions caused unfamiliar sensations in her body. She wanted to be sympathetic to Tifa's plight, but it really didn't seem all that bad to her. Cloud wasn't meant for her, even if Tifa didn't want to admit it, and Reno seemed like an extremely enjoyable alternative. Aerith only had Zack's promise ring to hold back the loneliness. "So you enjoyed yourself." she said out loud.

"Until he showed his true colors." Tifa told her best friend pissedly, wondering how Reno could be so contradictory.

" _That's it, I'm done." Reno panted as they lay next to each other, catching their breath. "You wore me out."_

" _What?" Tifa was surprised. "It's barely midnight!"_

" _Yeah, and we started in the afternoon." Reno pointed out. "You're insatiable, aren't you?" he teased her._

" _I thought you would be too." Tifa pouted. She hadn't been consciously aware of her backlog of pent-up sexual frustration until she had Reno, and even though he had fulfilled that, now she just wanted to know that someone found her desirable. "You promised me I'd be satisfied."_

" _Well, in that case..." Reno took her in his arms and slipped his hand between her legs, smiling as she eagerly responded to his touch. He never thought he'd meet the woman that could outlast him, or that it would be the seemingly uptight Tifa. "I'm a man of my word, after all." Finally he sated Tifa enough for her to sleep, and Reno wasn't far behind her, cuddling her body against his, resting his head against the curve of her neck and closing his eyes. It wasn't always the quiet ones that surprised you, cause nothing about Tifa was quiet. He wondered if Mrs B remembered to turn her hearing aid off. Putting it out of his head, Reno couldn't wait for morning to taste Tifa's other goodies and find out if she cooked as she fucked. He fell asleep feeling more contented than he had in a long time._

"You're late." Rude remarked as Reno plopped down in his favorite chair in the break room. "Lemme guess, it's all some woman's fault." he smiled at his longtime partner, noticing he was moving slightly slower than usual.

"Yeah, it is." Reno said sourly. "Mind pouring me a cup of coffee?"

"Here ya go." Rude handed him a steaming mug with the sugar dispenser and a spoon, knowing how Reno liked his coffee.

"You'll rot your teeth." Elena repeated one of her favorite complaints as she watched Reno pour heaping spoonfuls of sugar into his coffee. He usually responded that he'd like to show her he didn't need teeth for a good time, but he didn't feel like it today.

"Oh hey, Tseng mentioned something about finally having tomorrow off, so how about we try out some of the new clubs and bars. You up for it, partner?" Rude asked him, surprised he didn't needle Elena as usual. "There's sure to be some hotties available."

Reno opened his mouth to turn down the invitation, but then he got a better idea. "We'll stick to the tried and true first, and if that doesn't pan out, then we'll go cruisin'. Seventh Heaven, around 8pm, that work for you?" If Tifa didn't care for his company, he'd shove it in her face how many women did.

Yuffie woke up to the sun shining through her windows and Cloud gently stroking her hair. Was she supposed to feel sore in places she didn't even know she had? He had woken up twice during the night and repeated his earlier performance. "Good morning." Yuffie tentatively smiled at him, unsure how she was supposed to act. She had been given tips only on how to get Cloud into bed, no advice on what to do afterwards

"I'm sorry about last night." Cloud said, and Yuffie's face fell.

"You...you didn't want me after all?" she asked quietly.

"Oh no, that's not what I meant!" Cloud quickly protested. "I'm sorry I didn't make sure you enjoyed it too, that's all."

"Oh. Well, I did like it." Yuffie said. "Your body is just as good as Reno's."

" _ **What**_?!" Cloud exclaimed. "I thought last night was your first time!"

"It was, but um...there was this art class, and uh...Reno turned out to be the model that day." Yuffie stammered as her cheeks turned cherry-red. "I've never been with anyone but you."

Cloud relaxed and his growing jealous anger faded. "Why me?"

"You forget who my father is. According to Wutaian custom, I'm not allowed to have sex with any man except my husband." Yuffie explained.

"But then...we...what does that mean?" Cloud was totally bewildered. "I thought you left home to get away from that since you didn't believe in it."

"I didn't believe in how my father led our people after the war with Shinra." Yuffie clarified. "I'm the last of the Kisaragi line, I will have to get married someday and keep our family going."

"So you're proposing to me?" Cloud still didn't know what was going on, but he was starting to get the uncomfortable feeling he was being used.

"No!" Yuffie shook her head in denial. "My father will choose my husband for me, and I'll pretend to be the innocent bride I'm supposed to be. No one will think twice about your presence here overnight, since you're with Tifa and everyone knows you're a man of honor. Seeing Reno's naked body got me curious." Yuffie left out Mrs. Beasley's guidance, and was about to explain that it brought up her old crush when Cloud spoke first.

"I'm not with Tifa! And apparently I'm not with you either!" Cloud angrily got out of bed and started getting dressed.

"You're leaving? What's wrong?" It was Yuffie's turn to be confused.

"I'm glad I was stupid enough to satisfy your curiosity!" he spat at her. "I had thought you had grown up, but you're still just a petty thief. You thought I was with Tifa, your best friend, and you still try and steal me for one night just to amuse yourself. You're just as selfish as she is!" With that, Cloud stormed out of her penthouse.

"I...I didn't do it for me, I did it for _us_!" Yuffie cried out too late at the shut door.


	9. Chapter 9

Aerith left Tifa after promising to stop by the next day. Tifa had wanted her to stay and help her open the bar, but Aerith had to go take care of her own business since she had spent the night taking care of the children. And she really needed to talk to Yuffie...it was bad enough being the last of the Cetra, Aerith wanted to chat with her only still-virginal friend to not feel so out of place

Tifa was glad to have running the bar to focus on, to keep her mind off how she would have to confess her sinful night with Reno to Cloud and beg for his forgiveness. She wanted to apologize to Reno as well for her meanness to him, but she felt he should apologize first for his cruel words. Cloud would come back home and then he'd never leave again, proving to everyone that he did love her, she told herself.

Reno checked his appearance one last time in his mirror. He didn't want to wear his Turk uniform for this, since his quarrel with Tifa was personal. He looked like he belonged to a biker gang in his tight ripped jeans, black worn t-shirt, and leather jacket, and women loved bad boys, especially when they had a body like his. Women who weren't Tifa, he corrected himself, frowning as he headed out to his sports car.

Rude was waiting for him outside the bar, dressed in a suit and tie as usual, but not his work uniform. It was a dark grey suit. He was wearing a cream-colored shirt as well with a dark red tie and matching handkerchief in his breast pocket. "You look like you stole that car escaping from jail." he said when Reno drove up.

"You're looking sharp as ever yourself." Reno was used to Rude's opinion of his off-duty wardrobe. "How about we play it that way? I'm about to stand trial and you're my lawyer. Let's see how much ass that routine gets us, buddy." Reno led Rude into the bar before his partner could object.

Tifa was giving instructions to her newest barmaid Laura, unaware of her two newest customers until Laura's eyes widened a bit and she got a funny smile on her face. "Who's _that_?" she asked her boss.

"Who's who?" Tifa turned around to see Reno and Rude sitting at the end of the bar. She frowned, amazed at the gall of the man to dare show his face at her bar, then realized she should expect nothing less from someone like him.

"Probably just another customer, but let's go find out." she said and gestured for Laura to follow her. "How can I help you?" she asked the off-duty Turks with a forced smile and clenched teeth.

"Is everything okay?" Rude was confused and concerned by her unusual attitude, she was usually genuinely pleasant to them.

"I'm having a busy night and I just need to know what you'd like." Tifa replied, ignoring that there were only five other customers beside themselves.

"Oh, I think you know what I like." Reno told her in a salacious voice.

Tifa took a deep breath and her eyes narrowed...it was bad enough seeing him again so soon, but to have him showing off his body in tight clothes like a...she suddenly smiled sweetly at Reno. "You heard him, Laura, give Mr. Skank and his friend the house special." she said before moving to the other end of the bar.

Laura poured Reno and Rude glasses of the most popular beer, and blushed when Reno winked at her. "I'm not a skank, I'm just a friendly kind of guy." he told the barmaid, thinking that fucking her employee would be a good way to pay Tifa back.

Rude elbowed Reno as soon as Laura left to go take care of other customers. "You slept with Tifa!" he accused him, long familiar with how former conquests treated Reno.

"It was an error in judgment." Reno said coldly as he sipped his beer. "And she started it."

Glaring at Reno, Rude stood up and threw some gil down on the counter to pay for his beer. "Do what you want, I'm going home." He didn't want to be a party to whatever his longtime partner was up to. Tifa was a class act, and even if Rude had accepted he didn't have a chance with her, she deserved better than to be just another notch on Reno's bedposts.

Reno was surprised that Rude left, but shrugged it off and gestured for Laura to come back. "My friend had to leave early, but he still paid for his beer, even if he didn't drink it all, would you mind refilling it for me on his dime?"

"You two don't look like you're friends." Laura said as filled up Rude's beer mug. "He looks so classy and you're..." her voice trailed off as she wondered what to say that wouldn't be insulting to him. He had such a charming smile and the rest of him was just as good.

"I like clothes you can move in." he told her with a hint of lewdness in his expression now. He noticed Tifa constantly glancing over at him, even if she refused to talk to him more, and it was time to prime her barmaid more. "Suits are just for work."

"You wear a suit to work? What kind of work do you do?" Laura wondered. She couldn't possibly picture this man dressed like a business executive.

"I can't tell you that." Reno honestly replied, smiling more as Laura responded as he expected her to.

"Can I have a refill?" one of the other customers at the bar asked Laura.

"Laura." Tifa tried to get her attention, but she was busy being chatted up by Reno, so Tifa dealt with the customer and then strode over to them to save her employee from him.

"But...if you're free after work, I can show you what suits I have. You ever been to the condos on Junon Avenue?" Reno asked Laura as he saw Tifa head towards them.

"I've heard they're really posh." Laura was impressed. "You can afford to live there?"

"Yeah, but I need to see your hands first." Reno told her.

"Why?" Laura held them out for him, noticing he had a gentle touch as he caressed her hands.

"My last overnight guest had really sharp nails. She made my back and chest look like I had been attacked by wildcats." Reno said as soon as Tifa was close enough to hear him.

"I did not!" Tifa found herself blurting out, causing everyone to stare at her as Reno's smile widened. "I did not say you could sexually harass my employees!" she clarified as her cheeks felt hot. "And I didn't say you could ignore other customers, Laura."

"Sorry, Boss." Laura took her hands out of Reno's as she acknowledged the rebuke and got back to work.

"And what the hell do you think you're doing?" Tifa demanded of Reno.

"You might want to get a dictionary." Reno replied as he took another sip of beer. "It's not harassment when it's consensual. Women who like to act otherwise can go fuck themselves. I'm not ashamed of being who I am, and I'll flirt with whoever I want to if they don't want me."

Tifa stood there fuming for a moment at his not-so-subtle insults, wishing she could throw him out without making a scene that would expose their night together, and then she noticed Vincent walking in and sitting down at a empty table not too far from the bar, and when he saw her looking at him, he gestured for her to come over. Deciding to teach Reno a lesson about flirting, she pasted what she thought was a teasing smile on her face. "Hey Vinnie, I've missed you. How have you been?" she asked in her imitation of a sexy voice.

Vincent stared at the dark-haired beauty. Her smile looked odd...did she have a stroke and no one told him? And why was she calling him Vinnie? "Uh, hi. I was hoping to talk to Cloud, I have some information he's been looking for. Is he here?"

Tifa blinked twice, barely managing to keep the smile on her face, not wanting Reno to know that Cloud was gone. "Oh Vinnie, you _naughty_ boy." Tifa let out a silly giggle. "You _know_ you only came here because Cloud isn't home now, and you want me to ask me to run away with you again."

Reno's well-trained ears heard every syllable of Tifa and Vincent's conversation, and was hard-pressed not to laugh. Tifa obviously had no idea how to flirt, and Vincent really wasn't the person to do it with. Watching her embarrass herself was even better revenge than doing her barmaid. His amusement didn't last long however, her cluelessness about flirting and her telling Vincent that Cloud wasn't home made him think about how alone she must really be. He had firsthand evidence about how love-starved she was, after all. He frowned and stood up, putting some gil on the counter and left, ignoring Laura's request to show her his condo.

"Um, I'll just go try and find Cloud on my own." Vincent said when Tifa finally gave him a chance to talk. He wondered if she ever drank on the job. "Thanks for letting me know he's not here." Vincent stood up and edged himself carefully towards the door before fleeing the bar.

Tifa frowned as he left, then noticed Reno had left as well. "Laura, when did Reno leave?"

"Reno? You mean that biker guy? He left while you were talking to that weird guy." Laura was pouting that he left without even giving her his number.

Tifa gratefully crawled into bed later that night. It had been such a trying day, and she was terribly disturbed by thoughts of Reno. He had done everything he could to ruin her day, but what hurt most was knowing she had disgraced herself with a man who obviously didn't care about her, otherwise he wouldn't have been so mean to her and tried to seduce her barmaid. She didn't understand why Reno didn't follow through with Laura though...why would he do something so out of character for him? And why was she even so upset about who he tried to sleep with? She couldn't figure it out, and finally fell into a troubled sleep, wishing Cloud would come home soon so they could put this behind them.


	10. Chapter 10

Cloud was staring at the flames of his campfire. It had been nearly two months since he had stormed out of Yuffie's penthouse in Wutai, and he had found himself stuck in a deeper rut than before. It had felt so good to be with her, but then she had started talking about marriage and how it wouldn't be him. He didn't know how to respond, and he freely admitted to himself that he handled it rather badly. Tifa and Yuffie were the only women he had been with, and he was too used to Tifa's clinging ways that Yuffie's revelations about her future had thrown him for a loop. He couldn't be with Tifa, and Yuffie couldn't be with him. Suddenly his phone went off, and he reached into his pocket and pulled it out, surprised to have a message. Tifa only texted him about Marlene and Denzel's school activities to remind him of his obligations, and it was the weekend.

 _Please have tea with me again in Wutai. I have to talk to you, it's important._

Cloud felt relieved as he replied that he'd be there in a few days. He had tried to figure out how to apologize to Yuffie during his search for Zack, but it all sounded so stupid. Hopefully he could figure out what to say when he saw her in person, he thought as he climbed into his sleeping bag and closed his eyes.

 _Yuffie opened the door as soon as Cloud knocked on it. "Please come in." she said. As soon as he walked in, he grabbed her and kicked the door closed. "What are you doing?" she asked in surprise as he carried her to her bedroom._

" _You're mine." he told her as he laid her down onto the bed and undid her kimono. This time she had a bra and panties under it, and he quickly removed them before unfastening his pants. "Do you understand? No one else will ever have you."_

" _Cloud, you know..." Yuffie was silenced as he crushed his mouth against hers and his hands started fondling her._

" _You'll be my wife so your precious tradition will be kept." he told her as he spread her legs apart. "Say you'll marry me."_

" _I want to." she admitted as he drove himself into her._

" _Say it then." he demanded as her body welcomed his familiar possession of her. It was as if she had been made just for him. "Say you'll marry me."_

" _I..." Yuffie moaned._

" _Say it!" he snapped. "Marry me!"_

"Marry me!" Cloud exclaimed.

"What?" Vincent hadn't been expecting that as he woke up the blonde warrior.

"Huh?" Cloud mumbled, then his awareness sharpened. "Vincent! What are you doing here?"

"I've been looking for you for weeks. I know you've been searching for Zack Fair, and I think there's a hidden cave in the northern Crater that might yield some answers." Vincent informed him.

"How do you know that?" Cloud asked, feeling a rush of adrenaline at the first real lead he'd had in months.

"There is nowhere angels fear to tread." Vincent said and handed him a single feather before disappearing in a swirl of his red cloak. First Tifa acts like he's in love with her, now Cloud blurts out a proposal when he wakes him up. Vincent really needed some quiet time hiding from the world in his coffin.

Cloud stared at the feather. It was very unusual, and he had no idea what animal it could have come from. Then he realized it was dawn and time for him to get moving...he wanted to go to the northern Crater right away, but he didn't have enough supplies, and he did promise Yuffie he'd see her as soon as he could.

Walking down the hallway to the door to Yuffie's penthouse, Cloud was surprised to see royal guards on either side of the door. "Remove all your weapons and you may enter." one of them ordered him. Wondering what was going on, he regretfully handed over the Buster sword and his hunting knife, and then one of the guards knocked before opening the door and announcing his arrival. Cloud walked cautiously inside to find Godo Kisaragi seated in one of the chairs in Yuffie's living room, looking sterner than Cloud remembered, and Yuffie was on the couch next to the coffee table with her tea service on it. She had her head bowed as if in shame and she seemed extremely pale.

"What's...what's going on here?" Cloud asked, feeling like he had just walked into some kind of trap.

"You violated my daughter!" Godo's angry voice boomed throughout the living room.

"You told him?" Cloud asked Yuffie, dumbfounded.

"I had to." Yuffie said meekly.

"Why?" Cloud wanted to know why on Gaia she would do such a thing, since she had made it clear their night together was to be private between them.

She finally raised her head to look at him, and her eyes were red and puffy from lengthy crying spells. "Because I'm pregnant!"


	11. Chapter 11

Cloud just stared at Yuffie in shock, not sure he heard her right. "You're...what?"

"We welcomed you with open arms in deference to your heroism and honor, and you repay us by defiling my daughter and obliterating the future of the House of Kisaragi!" Godo spat at Cloud. "She can never marry now, since she refuses to purge herself of the dishonor growing inside her. So now I am forced to purge her from our lineage instead...take your spoilt woman and get out of my sight!" he ordered Cloud. "You both are hereby exiled from Wutai, and you have one week to get out of our borders. After that, you will be killed on sight." Godo stood up.

"Father..." Yuffie tried one last to plead for clemency.

"I am not your father. You don't exist for me anymore." A frown passed over his face as he regretfully disowned her. "Take her and go!" he told Cloud.

In a daze, they were ushered outside the building to Fenrir, and followed to the outskirts of the village where Cloud was given back the Buster sword and his hunting knife.

"What...what just happened?" Cloud asked as the shock started to wear off.

"Father banished us." Yuffie tearfully replied as she realized she no longer had the right to call him Father.

They camped for the night by a small stream a few miles from the village. Cloud could have driven them much farther, but they both needed to rest and process the day's tumultuous events. "I...I don't have a tent, just a sleeping bag." he explained almost apologetically as he started getting supplies from Fenrir.

"It's okay, I used to sleep under the stars a lot when I was a kid." Yuffie reminded him, not really caring how or where she slept that night.

"You weren't pregnant with _my_ child then." Cloud felt strange to say those words. "Are you sure? How...I mean what...how did it happen?"

Yuffie stared at him as he started their campfire. "I thought you couldn't have children. Hojo's experiments made you sterile, didn't they?"

"Apparently not." Cloud frowned. He had forgotten that he had lied to Tifa long ago about his fertility when she had wanted to start their own family to prove to him that they belonged together. Obviously she had told her girlfriends. After they ate a meager dinner in uncomfortable silence, he unrolled the sleeping bag. "You can use this, I'll sleep on Fenrir."

Neither of them could sleep...Yuffie was staring at the dying embers of the fire, feeling unreal. If she wasn't Wutaian anymore, what was she? Cloud was also questioning his identity as he lay on his bike staring up at the stars. He was going to be a father! Raising adopted children was hard enough, even if Tifa was doing most of the work now. He flinched at the thought of her finding out, not only that he lied to her, but that one of her best friends was the one carrying his child, not her. What was he gonna do now? Shaking his head, he got off his bike and was adding more wood to the fire when he heard a strange noise. Listening carefully, he soon realized it was Yuffie trying to cry silently. Pity for her overcame him and he walked over to her and sat down on the edge of the sleeping bag.

"It'll be okay." Cloud couldn't think of anything else to say as he patted her shoulder, trying to reassure her, even though he wasn't sure how everything would be okay, this situation was so beyond him. He had expected a private tea with a woman he cared about so he could apologize to her, not to find out she was pregnant and her father deciding to banish them. He remembered Godo saying she wouldn't purge herself of her dishonor, which must mean their baby. "Why...why didn't you just have an abortion?" he wondered aloud, then realized how that sounded. "I mean...I'm not...oh never mind!" He went to stand up again when she turned her grief-stricken face to him.

"I...I just couldn't! I'm so sorry I did this to you." she tearfully apologized to him. "You're...you're all I have left and I know you don't want any of this."

Those words hit Cloud hard...Tifa had often told him he was all she had left, even when she had her bar, Avalanche, and Marlene, and he didn't even really know who he was. But Yuffie...she literally only had the clothes on her back, having essentially been declared dead by her own father, all because she decided to keep their baby, even after the awful way he treated her the last time when he stormed out of her penthouse. Cloud had never been more touched and he couldn't screw up this second chance with her, even if life had thrown him another curveball. "I _do_ want you." he told her, putting one hand on her cheek and the other on her as-yet flat stomach. "I want both of you."

He kissed her and before either of them knew it, they were undressing each other in the sleeping bag, and Yuffie's breath caught to feel him hard against her, still slightly disbelieving that he had forgiven her. Tears filled her eyes again at how gentle he was with her, and her body responded eagerly to his touch. Her moans soon turned to cries of pleasure, culminating in her exclamation to Cloud, as her body exploded and she was lost in the wonder of her first orgasm. "I love you!"

"I love you too." Cloud replied, realizing it was true. Had he always felt that way and just suppressed his feelings for Yuffie because of Tifa? It didn't matter, they were together now, and he intended to keep it that way. "And I want you to marry me."

Hope flared in Yuffie's eyes, quickly replaced by sadness. "I...I don't have anything to offer you. I'm a nobody now."

"Will you offer me yourself?" he asked quietly.

"Of course!" Yuffie agreed immediately. "But..."

"That's all I want." Cloud kissed her again, her comment about being a nobody sticking in his mind. He remembered his dream when Vincent had woken him up with news about Zack, how he had promised Yuffie he would honor her traditions...her Wutaian heritage was such a part of her. Deciding he couldn't marry her with how things stood and his unfinished business, he waited until she fell asleep and quickly left.

The lack of warmth next to her woke up Yuffie as the sun was rising. She found a note next to the sleeping bag, weighed down with a rock and Cloud nowhere in sight. Her stomach in knots, she took the note and read it.

 _I love you, don't ever forget that. I'm going to try and set things right. If I'm not back by nightfall, take Fenrir and get out of Wutai tomorrow morning, and tell our child their father loved them very much._

"You are no longer welcome here." Godo told Cloud as the young man forced his way into an audience with the ruler of the Wutai nation. "I spared you and your woman once when I should have executed you on the spot. You won't be so lucky a second time."

"You're not going to let things end like this." Cloud stated. "I want the Shagaro trial."


	12. Chapter 12

Tifa had never felt more lonely in her life as she dragged herself out of bed to get dressed for work. She tried to keep up a cheerful front for Marlene and Denzel's sake, but it was getting harder and harder. It had been weeks without any word from Cloud, and he usually at least would talk to her about the kids if nothing else. Even Reno was avoiding her...he had been an infrequent patron at her bar as it was, but after not seeing him for two weeks after their blowout, he had texted her with his version of a truce, promising to not be such an asshole if she'd quit being so bitchy, and she had been so offended by his language that she told him to fuck off, and that was the last she had heard from him. Even the other Turks weren't coming in for a cold one, so she didn't know if he was alive or dead, and she kept telling herself she didn't care. But it hurt so much to have the only two men she had ever been with to freeze her out of their lives. Even her friends didn't seem to have any time for her. Neither she nor Aerith had heard much from Yuffie lately, they knew she had gone back home to Wutai, but that was it. Even Aerith was busy with her flower business...

It was a typical day at work, but she didn't get her typical enjoyment of how the customers would confide in to her like she had the answers to all their problems. It made her feel like she mattered to people, but lately it bothered her that they never seemed to ask how she was doing in return.

"I'll take a gin and tonic." a familiar voice ordered.

"Mrs. Beasley! I mean...Ellie...what are you doing here?" Tifa was surprised to see her.

"You haven't been coming to knit with the Stitching Bitches anymore, so I'm finally coming to you." the older woman replied.

"What's wrong?" Tifa asked concernedly as she handed her the drink.

"You tell me. I want to know what exactly happened between you and Reno." Ellie said.

"I thought you would have already known that." Tifa said bitterly, feeling herself tense up. "And why is it any of _your_ business?"

"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady." Ellie snapped. "Would you rather talk about this in private?" she asked in a friendlier voice.

"Fine." Tifa replied with ill grace, deciding to avoid making a scene. "We'll talk in my office."

"Why do you want to know about it?" Tifa locked her office door shut and sat down at her desk with an irate expression on her face.

"Because I care about both of you, and obviously something went wrong that upset you two. I saw you leave in tears, and he didn't have any other women over for two weeks even though he was home, and that wasn't like him." Ellie explained as she sat down in the chair on the in front of the desk. "So since he won't talk about it, I'm asking you."

"He's a cruel and selfish ass." Tifa said, though she was surprised that he gave up women until she refused his rude version of a truce. She didn't think he had it in him.

"I've lived next to him for five years and I've never seen him that way. I also never saw a woman leave his place feeling anything but completely satisfied until you." Ellie pointed out. "What did he do that you found so offensive? Didn't you enjoy yourself?"

"Oh, he's a great dick." Tifa angrily agreed. "He told me I was fooling myself by thinking Cloud would ever want me."

Ellie stared thoughtfully at Tifa for a few moments. Privately she agreed with his assessment of her 'relationship' with the constantly absent Cloud, but he didn't understand you don't tell a woman that, especially just after having sex with her and the woman in question was as stubborn as Tifa. "So what did you do?"

"I slapped him and he kicked me out. Then he came here that night and tried to get my barmaid to go home with him." Tifa informed her, remembering how hurt she had been by his behavior.

"Tried? He didn't succeed?" Ellie continued her questioning.

"He would have, but he left without her and Laura was pissed for days. He was just determined to ruin things for me." Tifa pouted, even though she was still confused as to why he didn't sleep with Laura.

"So he wanted to get back at you? Does that mean you hurt his feelings too?" Ellie questioned her.

"I doubt he has any feelings that don't come from his penis!" Tifa exclaimed, even though she felt unsure about that. "That's the only thing that would hurt him, when I told him being with him was the worst thing that ever happened to me."

Ellie sighed in frustration over how immature they were being...they both needed some sense knocked into them. "Tifa, it's fine if you don't want to be with Reno, but don't make everyone suffer just because you're clinging to Cloud. Just be fair to him, and Cloud, but yourself most of all." she leaned forward and patted the young woman's hand. "You're still young enough to have a long happy life with the right man, but if you wait much longer, you'll have a long bitter life. Now I've got to go, there's a nice gentleman waiting for me to teach him a new version of bingo." Ellie smiled mischievously at Tifa as she got up and left the office.

Tifa sat motionless in her boss chair for a long time, the older woman's words playing like a broken record in her head, and it was too much for her. "I need a vacation!" Tifa decided. Barret had promised to watch over the kids and the bar if she ever needed it, but she had never wanted to leave it before, not knowing whenever Cloud would come home. She'd see if Aerith wanted to go to her hometown of Icicle so she'd have some company.


	13. Chapter 13

Godo stared hard at Cloud as the royal court murmured amongst themselves in shocked hushed tones. "If you know anything about the Shagaro trial, you should know that is for Wutaians, not disgraced and exiled foreigners!" Gold snapped at him.

"I know that passing the Shagaro trial grants me a full pardon for my family. That includes my future wife and our child." Cloud replied, boldly looking the Wutaian leader straight in the eye.

"And if you fail, it means your deaths." Godo frowned. "She is no longer Wutaian either, her promising herself to you does not change anything."

"How did you kn-" Cloud realized that of course Godo would have ninja spies at his disposal. He should have noticed, but he had been too distracted by the day's events, not to mention the night's as well.

Staniv approached Godo and bowed, speaking only after Godo nodded in permission. "You gave them a week to leave Wutai, so one could assume her banishment isn't final until the week is up. And this way, their blood will be on his head for failing, not yours." he quietly told his leader.

Godo's frown was thoughtful this time. "So be it. Bring the woman." he ordered Gorki and Chekhov, who promptly left.

"Leave her out of this!" Cloud demanded futilely.

"If you die, she dies." Godo reminded him coldly. "Prepare for the trial." he told the remaining Wusheng, who also left.

Cloud reluctantly handed over his weapons again, and was given a dark blue and black keikogi to wear.

Yuffie had had so many new experiences in the six years since her path had crossed with Cloud and Tifa's, but it wasn't until she saw Gorki and Chekhov approaching their camp that she finally experienced true fear. _Was Cloud_...? "The week isn't up yet, you have no business with me." she stated with all the bravado she could muster as she put one hand protectively over her stomach and the other around one of the thick branches she had collected for firewood. "Especially since I've beaten both of you once already and you've gotten older since then."

Gorki and Chekhov both smiled reminiscently at her familiar spunk. "We have no quarrel with you, as long as you come with us peacefully." Gorki told her.

"Why do you think I would go anywhere with you?" Yuffie asked.

"To witness your beloved undergo the Shagaro trial." Chekhov replied.

Yuffie hadn't even realized she had collapsed until Gorki picked her up off the ground and put her on Fenrir, sandwiched between the two warriors as the three of them rode back to the village.

Cloud was being escorted to the pagoda when he saw them drive in and park near it. Everyone stopped outside the pagoda as Yuffie stared numbly at Cloud, her relief at seeing him overshadowed by the reason for it. "How...how could you ask for the trial? Don't you know-"

"He knows he gets a full pardon for his family by succeeding." Godo interrupted her with a warning look as he came out of the pagoda."Take her inside and get ready." he ordered Gorki and Chekhov.

"Where are they taking her?" Cloud wanted to know as he watched them disappear inside the pagoda, feeling like he was missing something by Yuffie and Godo's behavior.

"Don't worry, you'll see her soon enough, one way or another." Godo promised him. "Now drink this and the trial can begin." he handed Cloud a small vial.

"What is it?" Cloud eyed the vial suspiciously.

"Drink it unless you want to forfeit now." Godo commanded him.

Cloud took a deep breath and drank the tangy contents of the vial. Suddenly everything went dark. "What..what did you do to me?!" He put his arms out trying to grab hold of Godo but he fell down instead.

"Shagaro was the mightiest warrior in Wutaian history, defeating the Wusheng in less than an hour while blind and unarmed. If you want your pardon, you must prove yourself just as skilled." Godo said as Cloud was picked up and led inside to the first floor of the pagoda and left there. "The trial begins now."

"Who's there?" Cloud sensed another person nearby despite the disorientation caused by his blind state.

Gorki smiled. "Let's see if you have what it takes to reach the top floor."

Cloud heard the sound of magic being cast and then staggered backwards as he suddenly felt weak. He tried to get as far from Gorki as possible, but he didn't know the layout of the room or where Gorki was. Yuffie had beaten the Wusheng herself to get the Leviathan materia, but she hadn't been blind or unarmed. He had known that the Shagaro trial was dangerous, but he only knew of it from the local blacksmith mentioning it in passing...what had he gotten himself into?


	14. Chapter 14

"I was expecting better from someone who bested the legendary Sephiroth." Gorki mocked Cloud. "I'm only the first level, there are four others above me, and look at you!"

The stinging pain from yet another blow made it hard for Cloud to think of how he could possibly win this fight as he lay half-huddled on the floor, the sound of his ragged breathing echoing throughout the chamber. "You...you must feel so strong, beating up a blind and unarmed man."

"You demanded the Shagaro trial, not us." Gorki said. "Did you really expect not to have to pay for your crimes against Wutai?"

 _Wutai_. A nation full of highly skilled ninjas, experts at stealth, Cloud reminded himself. Yet he could hear or sense Gorki. He mustered all the strength he could, and when he heard Gorki getting ready to cast another spell, he launched himself where his ears and innate warrior sense told him his opponent was.

The spell hit the wall harmlessly as Cloud's tackle caused it to misfire. The two men rolled on the floor, wrestling with each other until Cloud attempted to head-butt Gorki, and missed slightly. It still stunned the Wusheng just long enough for Cloud to follow up with the hardest punch he could manage. When Gorki lay motionless beneath him, Cloud rolled off him and lay on the floor for a few moments, trying to catch his breath. "Four more to go." he told himself as he attempted to get up, when suddenly a hand pulled him to a standing position.

"Not bad, but you only got in a lucky shot." Gorki told him. "The stairs to the next floor are that way." He turned Cloud to face the right way and gave him a friendly shove which caused the exhausted Cloud to stumble a bit.

As he climbed the stairs, Cloud tried to regain his strength for the next fight, wondering what it would be like. Yuffie had never said what she went through when she defeated them, but he was doing this for her and their future together, so he had to go through it as well.

"You took your sweet time getting here." Shake said. "You ready for a Rage Bomber?"

Cloud would have thought this was just weird hallucinogenic dream if he didn't hurt so much. Was he fighting a big bird? He was trying to figure out the timing of its attacks as he heard wings flapping. As soon as the sound stopped, Cloud tried to dodge, knowing he was getting dive-bombed. Shake had been prepared for it though, and Cloud was knocked painfully to the ground. Shake landed on top of him, and was about to peck him when Cloud grabbed his legs and threw him into the wall.

Cloud cursed his now sore knee and bruised ribs as he climbed the next set of stairs. The layout of each floor was apparently the same, which made it easier for him in his blind state. Three fights to go! "Don't tell me I'm fighting a gorilla now." he said as he entered the chamber of the third floor.

"No, just me." Chekov replied. "The clock is ticking you know. You only had an hour to save yourself and Yuffie, and you're wasting time talking."

It seemed to take Cloud forever to climb the stairs to the fourth level. Chekov had told him he only won because his blindness nullified his Stare attack. His ribs hurt worse, now his dominant wrist was bothering him.

"So you made it this far...I'm not impressed yet, however." Staniv informed him.

Cloud felt seriously outmatched. Staniv was brutal, and Cloud was kept too busy trying to dodge his blows to figure out how to win this fight. "This...this is personal for you, isn't it?" he asked as he felt the wall against his back, sensing a hidden anger in Staniv's blows.

"The Wutai Nation _must_ be ruled by the most skilled warrior, not traitors and foreigners!" Staniv snapped.

"Rule the Wutai nation? What are you talking about?" Cloud asked in surprise. "I only wanted this trial for a full pardon!"

"Fool! There is no way to be pardoned, you kill the leader and take over, as did Shagaro." Staniv informed him.

"Kill...Yuffie's father?!" Cloud was so stunned he barely felt his ribs crack from the latest blow.

"It will never happen! I haven't shown you my war cry yet!" An unearthly howl pierced Cloud's ear as Staniv unleashed his war cry attack, and suddenly Cloud felt grief and regret so strong it was almost tangible. Every mistake in his life seemed to rear its ugly head, and he slumped to the floor, overcome by sadness. The killing blow Staniv had been about to deliver barely missed him and the iron ball left a dent in the wall. The noise penetrated Cloud's depression and he looked up at Staniv with sudden inspiration.

"Yuffie was not a mistake!" he exclaimed, and grabbing and yanking the chain, throwing Staniv off balance and dropping him to the floor, tangling him up in his ball and chain weapon. Cloud kicked him unconscious and somehow managed to drag himself to the last flight of stairs. Both knees hurt badly, his wrist was worse, the cracked ribs made it hard to breath, and now one of his shoulders was losing function. He paused in front of the door to the top floor. Godo lay beyond...how could he kill Yuffie's father? How could he not, since it meant his and Yuffie's deaths, and their unborn child as well? And he didn't know how much more fight he had in him anyway. With great reluctance, he opened the door.


	15. Chapter 15

"Icicle?" Aerith stared at Tifa. "Winter will just be starting there, and it might be a bad one this year."

"We've never seen your hometown for just a regular visit, it'll be fun!" Tifa exclaimed. "And there's nothing like a winter holiday! It's just for a week!" she continued to plead.

Aerith was extremely concerned about her friend. Tifa was a clinger, not just to Cloud, but to her bar as well. If she wanted a vacation, something was wrong. She sighed in resignation. "When do we leave?"

"Two days, you won't regret it!" Tifa forced a smile to cover her own doubts.

"You...you made it!" Yuffie's voice trembled as Cloud walked into the chamber.

"Yuffie? Why are you here?" Cloud turned his head in the direction of her voice. He wasn't sure he could handle more surprises, and her hug aggravated his injuries.

"She can't share your fate unless you marry her before we fight." Godo informed him. "No wedding, no life."

Cloud's inner disquiet grew by leaps and bounds, but he kept silent. The trial had gotten totally out of control, but he had asked for it and Yuffie would definitely be killed if he forfeited now. He just **had** to figure out how to see it through without anyone dying. A Wutaian priest was already there, and he married Cloud and Yuffie immediately without any of the usual formalities...Cloud had some trouble with his part, being blind and injured, but he managed. It almost felt like a nightmare of a farce to Cloud as the priest concluded the ceremony. He was now married to the woman he loved, just before he and his new father-in-law battled each other in a fight to the death.

"I...I didn't know everything about the trial, I'm sorry." he whispered to his new bride in the moment alone they were granted.

"I know." Yuffie told him. "Just..." She couldn't bring herself to tell him to do his best, not wanting either of them to die. "I...I love you." she said instead.

"I love you too." Cloud replied, then the other Wusheng gave Cloud a nudge towards their leader and took Yuffie to the entrance to the chamber where they could watch the fight and kill her if he died.

"You've got five minutes left of your hour." Godo said as Cloud approached him. He gestured and the outer perimeter of the floor fell away, revealing dozens of bamboo plants, all cut to jagged points.

"What did you do?" Cloud asked, having heard the noise but not knowing what it was.

"We have a special kind of bamboo that has an incredibly fast growth rate, and we're now surrounded by it. If you fall off the battle platform, you're dead." With that, Godo took out his sword. "The clock is ticking."

The first blow missed as Cloud heard the sound of the blade moving and dodged. Wanting to fight him on an equal basis, Cloud listened for the second blow and grabbed the sword blade with his bare hands, drawing on all his strength to wrench the sword out of Godo's hands and throw it away. "Now we're both unarmed." he said, trying to ignore the pain in his now cut hands.

"Is that what you think?" Godo smiled maliciously as he blasted Cloud with a spell. The poison now spreading through his body took Cloud's breath away and Godo easily sent him flying with a well-timed blow. Cloud's hands felt the edge of the platform as he was falling and he grabbed onto it as hard as he could, grimacing as his feet landed on the jagged bamboo spears. He tried to pull himself back onto the platform, but he was too weak and injured. Cloud felt pressure on one of his hands and cried out as Godo's foot pressed down harder. "This is what happens to those who betray the Wutai nation."

"I never betrayed it!" Cloud grabbed Godo's ankle with his free hand and jerked as hard as he could. When Godo fell down onto the platform, Cloud found the strength to use him to climb out of the death pit. Taking a deep breath, he gripped Godo's robe around his neck and lifted it up, slamming his head against the floor with the frail strength he had left as the poison made him weaker and weaker. "Yield! I don't want to kill you!" Cloud exclaimed as the repeated blows to his head were inching Godo towards unconsciousness.

"No! Foreigners will never rule Wutai!" Staniv suddenly yelled and charged Cloud when it looked like he was winning. As he swung his ball and chain with a blow obviously meant to kill Cloud, Godo suddenly pushed the young man off him and blasted Staniv with a spell that sent him flying into the pit. His grotesque screams were silenced as he was impaled on the bamboo points.

"You win." Godo told Cloud. "Bring her here and leave us." he ordered the remaining Wusheng. Cloud was as confused as he had ever been as Yuffie helped him stand up. Once they were alone, Godo cast another spell, healing Cloud of the poison and his blindness. "Thank you for this. I long suspected Staniv was capable of unacceptable treachery. The Shagaro trial is supposed to be inviolate, his interference was traitorous. And I told you what happens to those who betray the Wutai nation."

"But..." Cloud still didn't get what was going on.

"I hope you will fight for Wutai with the same determination you fought for my daughter." Godo told him, patting him on his uninjured shoulder.

"You...you planned this, Father?" Yuffie found her voice.

"I hoped he would ask for the Shagaro trial. I wanted to know that he wanted you, not the leadership of the Wutai nation. I know how impulsive you can be." Godo smiled affectionately at his daughter. "Now you should go tend to your husband, you'll need to have your wedding portrait painted soon, but wearing the proper attire." Godo gestured again, and the floor closed again, hiding Staniv's body.


	16. Chapter 16

Cloud gave Yuffie instructions on driving Fenrir so she could drive him to her penthouse before they went to the palace where Godo had told them they were expected. Yuffie supported him until she could lay him down on her couch. "Let me get my first aid kit." she told him and went to her bathroom.

Cloud sighed and closed his eyes, fighting to stay conscious. The last 24 hours had been more of a challenge than his journey to destroy Sephiroth once and for all, and he needed time to process everything, but right now all he could process was how much pain he was in.

"Take these first." Yuffie came back with a glass of water in one hand and two pills in the other. "They're pretty fast-acting but they taste horrible."

"Thanks." Cloud took them with the water and Yuffie smiled at the face he made when he found out she was right about the taste before she left to get the rest of her supplies.

"Thank you." Yuffie said when she started cleaning and bandaging his feet.

"What for?" Cloud asked groggily as the pain pills started sending him into La-La land.

"For restoring my position and sparing my father." she replied as she tended to his hands next.

"I had to." Cloud mumbled.

"I'm glad. I can't do much for your ribs, they'll have to heal on their own." she told him in a tone that suggested prior experience. "But I can bandage your wrist." Yuffie had had plenty of practice fixing herself up after an intense day of ninja training, but she hadn't seen anyone beaten this badly before who lived. She wanted to say more to him, but when she looked up at his bruised face, he had fallen asleep. "You're my hero." she said and gently kissed his bloody lips.

As they sat for their wedding portrait at the palace, Yuffie couldn't help but think of how things had come full circle. The art class where Reno was the model had eventually led her to Cloud, and now they were married and posing for someone to paint them. After two hours, the artist said he was done for the day and had enough pictures of them to finish on his own, and assured them he would be able to paint Cloud without his injuries. Next they were the guests of honor at a formal dinner to commemorate the transfer of leadership.

Finally they were allowed to go back to Yuffie's penthouse for the night but were expected to move into the palace in the morning. "I…I need to leave soon and go to the northern Crater." Cloud informed his new bride as they lay in her bed.

"What's in the northern Crater?" Yuffie asked nervously.

"Vincent told me that Zack might be there, trapped in a hidden cave. I need to bring him back to Aerith." Cloud explained. "I'm sure it's not a dangerous trip."

"You're in no condition to go anywhere." Yuffie pointed out, though the thought of Aerith being reunited with the man she loved almost overrode her worry for Cloud.

"I'll take some help along. I'm sure Reno and Rude will be made available." Cloud promised her. He had also thought of the red-headed Turk while they were sitting for their wedding portrait, and he wanted to make it clear that Reno was to keep his clothes on around Yuffie.

"I want to go with you." Yuffie stated quietly but determinedly. "It can be our honeymoon."

Cloud knew better than to try and argue with her, he had seen that same stubborn look in Tifa's eyes far too many times. "Alright, I'll tell Tseng to have Reno and Rude meet us in Icicle to get supplies." he agreed.

"Do you need more pain pills to help you sleep?" she asked him.

"No, I'm fine." Cloud replied, then lay silent as he realized this was supposed to be their wedding night, but he was in no condition to even hold his new bride. He sighed and closed his eyes, hoping a good night's sleep would heal him enough for the trip. "I'll make this up to you somehow." he murmured before he fell asleep.

Aerith was totally worn out. She had wanted to see her hometown again, but Tifa was so determined to have fun and try all the activities the tourist's bureau recommended, no matter what it was, that this 'holiday' wasn't fun at all. They were supposed to try ice fishing next, which held no appeal at all for the only remaining Ancient.

"And tomorrow we can try snowshoeing up Mt. Portalus or learn how to build our own igloo." Tifa told her as they walked through the village towards the lake, when she caught sight of a familiar blonde head. "Cloud?" Tifa froze momentarily, then ran towards him, Aerith following her. Tifa only had eyes for Cloud, throwing her arms around him. "I've been so worried about you!"

"Tifa…why are you here?" Cloud grimaced as her bear hug made his cracked ribs hurt.

"Yuffie?" Aerith asked, noticing what Tifa hadn't at first, that she was holding hands with Cloud.

"I thought this was supposed to be some kind of honeymoon trip for two." Reno said as he and Rude arrived for their scheduled meeting with Cloud. "Are you into polygamy now or something?"

"Honeymoon?" Tifa drew away from Cloud and noticed Yuffie's presence for the first time. "What's…what's going on here?"


	17. Chapter 17

Tifa felt herself starting to panic as Cloud and Yuffie just stared at her with guilty expressions on their faces. "Someone say something!" she shrieked.

Reno raised one eyebrow as he took in the situation. "You didn't tell her yet? Man, that's cold." He hadn't thought Cloud capable of doing something like that.

"There wasn't time!" Cloud snapped back, and then took a deep breath. "Tifa, I…I wasn't planning for you to find out like this, but…"

"Find what out?" she demanded, still shrieking.

"I married Yuffie." Cloud blurted out, putting his arm around his wife as Aerith's jaw dropped.

"No!" Tifa shook her head in disbelief and denial as the words hit her like blows.

"Yuffie, how could you do this behind our backs?" Aerith asked her, recovering from the surprise announcement quicker.

"I…" Yuffie started to find her voice.

"And that's our cue to leave. We'll go have lunch at Cormano's. Meet us there when you're done here." Reno told Cloud. The Turks knew within hours of Cloud and Yuffie's marriage, having always kept a close watch on the political climate of Wutai since their war with Shinra, but the smug vindication he had felt upon hearing the news was fading fast in the face of Tifa's hurt shock, and he didn't want to witness any more of her downfall.

Tifa barely registered their leaving as she tried to figure out what was going on. "Married?" She narrowed her eyes and glared at Yuffie. "You…you stole him from me?! You…"

"No!" Cloud exclaimed. "I was never really with you, Tifa. You wanted something that could never happen. You're my dearest friend, but…"

"I didn't mean to get pregnant, Tifa, I swear it!" Yuffie told her heartbroken friend.

Tifa couldn't believe her ears…this just kept getting worse. "Pregnant? You…it can't be Cloud's! Have you forgotten you can't have children?" she demanded of her childhood sweetheart.

"I…I lied to you, Tifa. I just didn't want children with _you_." Cloud admitted reluctantly.

"How…how long has this been going on between you two?" Tears welled up in Tifa's eyes as the enormity of how much she had been betrayed started to sink in.

"It was one night just over two months ago." Yuffie said quietly. "He proposed when I told him I was pregnant."

Tifa realized that was around the time she had…"So you found out that I had sex with Reno and decided to get your revenge by knocking up my best friend? I swear it didn't mean anything! I don't know why I even did it."

It was Cloud and Yuffie's turn to be shocked. "You…you had **sex** with _Reno_? I thought you didn't like him." he said.

"I don't! It was all because of that stupid painting! Please say you forgive me." Tifa pleaded. "You've paid me back enough with this cruel prank, you can stop it now."

"There's nothing to forgive, you can be with who you want." Cloud told her. "But this isn't a prank."

"Please stop this and come home with me! The children and I need you!" The tears now streamed freely down Tifa's face as she started becoming hysterical.

"Tifa, I love Yuffie." he gently said. "My home is with her now. I'm moving to Wutai. Marlene and Denzel are welcome to visit whenever they want. But what you need is to find someone who can love you the way you deserve. We've got to get to the northern Crater soon, so please take care of yourself." He took Yuffie's hand and led her towards Cormano's as she looked back at her friends as if to say something else, but Aerith frowned and turned away from her, to comfort the distraught Tifa.

Aerith led Tifa back to the hotel, who was oblivious to the curious looks from passerbys at her nonstop sobbing. Once back in the privacy of their hotel room, Tifa threw herself down on her bed to continue crying. "Maybe you should take a hot bath, Tifa." Aerith suggested, at a loss for how to best help her friend.

"He…how could they do this to me?" Tifa wailed.

"I don't know." Aerith truthfully replied. She knew that one day Tifa would have to face the truth that Cloud wasn't for her, but to have it be because he had impregnated and married a close friend behind your back, it was unthinkable! She was shocked that Yuffie would do this without telling Tifa she was interested in Cloud. Aerith frowned, realizing that Tifa would never have given her blessing for anyone else to be with Cloud, so maybe it had to be done in secret, but still… "Come on, let's get you into that tub and then we'll order room service." she said brightly.

Tifa submitted to Aerith's ministrations, too in shock over her world crashing down around her to know or care much about what was happening to her.

"So we'll meet at first light, fly to the northern Crater, check out the cave, then fly back here. If conditions are right, we should be back here in time for lunch." Reno told Cloud and Yuffie, his urge to hit Cloud for Tifa's sake tempered by the unhappy expressions on the newlyweds' faces.

"Agreed." Cloud signaled the waiter. "Put their meals on my bill."

"Hey, thanks man." Rude smiled. "This place has the best kishi wings I've ever had. We'll get some to go for dinner."

"Do you know what you want to eat?" Cloud asked Yuffie.

"I'm…I'm not really hungry." she replied mournfully.

"You should eat something, you're eating for two now, remember?" he reminded her, squeezing her hand lightly. The sword cuts on his hands were starting to heal, but it was going to take time just like the rest of him. He had special boots on to accommodate his injured feet.

"You're pregnant?" Reno stared at her. "No pregnant chicks on a mission, it's bad for business."

"You sexist jerk!" Yuffie's temper flared up despite her sadness. "I'm pregnant, not incompetent!"

"She's coming. It's just a routine mission." Cloud told Reno.

"We missed the ice fishing yesterday, but do you still want to try it today, or learn how to build igloos?" Aerith asked Tifa over breakfast the next morning. Tifa was more responsive after some sleep, but her grief and shock had been replaced by apathy.

"Why don't we just go home?" Tifa suggested flatly. "You were right, this vacation was a bad idea."

Aerith looked like she was going to object for a moment, but ended up nodding, then she suddenly shrieked.

"What's wrong?" Tifa asked.

"I don't…" Aerith was interrupted when the room suddenly started shaking and the power went out. The young women were knocked to the floor, their breakfast joining them as the table fell over. They heard more sounds of destruction all around them as the building itself lurched to the side and then everything stopped.

"What was that?" Tifa wondered what else could happen to her now.

"I think it was…" Aerith was interrupted again, this time by someone outside yelling into a megaphone.

"Please exit the building through the fire escapes." the stranger was ordering all the hotel guests.

Once they made their way safely outside, Aerith and Tifa sought out the first official they saw. "What happened?" Tifa asked.

"Major earthquake, the epicenter was at the Crater. Several avalanches have resulted, we're organizing search and rescue teams now." the official told them.


	18. Chapter 18

_Yuffie entered Cloud's office where he was going over the latest treasury reports and pulled his chair out from the desk to face her. "You're my hero." she told him as she slipped her kimono off and kissed him._

" _Yuffie, I…" Cloud knew there was something important he was supposed to do, but her naked body against his own surprisingly naked self distracted him from everything else._

" _I know you're still not healed enough for much, but I've got you covered." Yuffie smiled as she positioned herself in his lap and putting his hands on her firm buttocks as she started eagerly riding him._

" _You're perfect." Cloud groaned and clutched her cheeks harder as she easily brought him to fulfillment._

" _You're not so bad yourself. Now you've got wake up." Yuffie said, suddenly getting off him._

" _Wake up?" Cloud was confused as well as disappointed._

" _Just remember, all you have to do is ask me what my perfect body will do for you." Yuffie said with smug satisfaction as she put her kimono back on._

" _I'll remember." Cloud promised. "But don't leave yet…"_

"Wake up!" Yuffie pleaded as she shook Cloud's unconscious body. "Please wake up!"

"Your body really is perfect." Cloud mumbled as he regained consciousness. "Take your kimono off again!" Yuffie blushed as Cloud opened his eyes and realized they weren't at the Royal Palace in Wutai anymore. "What…what happened?"

"There was an earthquake and a cave-in. We're trapped. You and Reno were knocked unconscious trying to protect us." Yuffie looked over to where Rude was trying to revive him.

" _You were so right about everything." Tifa said in a sultry voice as she poured Reno his favorite drink. They were the only two people in her bar, since she had closed it early._

" _I always am." Reno was all eyes for Tifa in the revealing dress she wore in his favorite shade of blue, as she came around the bar to sit on the stool next to him before she handed him the drink._

" _However can I apologize to you?" she asked, leaning forward and tracing his tattoos with her forefinger._

" _This is a good start." Reno lifted his glass up to toast her. He usually didn't like people touching his tattoos, but he'd make an exception for her since she was close enough for him to enjoy her plunging neckline. Looking at her impressive cleavage always put him in a better mood._

" _But I need to finish it…how do you want me?" she tilted her head and smiled at him as her hand moved downward to caress his chest before she slid it into his pants and fondled him until she felt him harden. "I'll take this anywhere for_ _ **you**_ _."_

"Okay, um, you can get on your knees then, Tifa." Reno replied.

"Are you kidding me?!" Rude exclaimed in disgust at his partner. "Get a hold of yourself, buddy."

Reno stared at Rude then noticed Cloud and Yuffie staring oddly at him as well, and quickly stood up. "It's cold here!" he exclaimed, shoving his hands in his pockets to push his pants away from his erectile self. "Uh…we've gotten ourselves in a little trouble, haven't we?" he tried to say in a casual tone as he remembered the quake and looked around at the cave they were now trapped in.

"Why did you shriek before the earthquake?" Tifa asked Aerith as they waited for the fire truck to be ready for them to climb up the ladder and get into their hotel room only to get their belongings and climb back down. The hotel would have to be demolished and rebuilt, the earthquake had damaged it too much to be repaired, and there had been a few aftershocks that didn't help.

"The planet cried out to me. I think we have to go to the Crater. I don't know why, but that's where we need to be." Aerith explained.

"That's where Cloud and Yuffie are." Tifa reminded her testily. The earthquake might have shaken loose some of her grief and apathy, but it was being quickly replaced by bitter anger. "They can rot there."

"Then you can stay here, but I'm going." Aerith told her. "The planet has never led me wrong."

"Are you room 215?" the fire chief came over and asked them, looking at his clipboard. 

"Yeah, that's us." they replied together.

"Okay, could just one of you go up and pack up all your belongings? We're trying to limit weight in the building." he informed them, holding the tethered harness up for one of them to wear in case the building started to collapse.

"I'll do it." Tifa said, and was up the ladder before Aerith or the chief could object. She put the harness on before she climbed in through the window. Once safely in the hotel room, she found their suitcases and started grabbing what she could. Opening the drawer in Aerith's nightstand, she was surprised to see a framed picture of herself with Aerith and Yuffie, taken at Yuffie's 17th birthday party at the bar when they caught her trying to pour herself a beer from the taps and dumped a bucket of ice over her. Aerith had scribbled _Friends don't let underage friends drink warm beer_! on the bottom of it.

"Are you okay, Tifa?" Aerith worriedly yelled up to her.

"I'm almost done!" Tifa yelled back before hurriedly putting the picture in Aerith's suitcase and shoved the rest of their stuff into the suitcases, not worrying if she put something in the wrong one, they could fix it later. She appeared at the window with the two suitcases, and Aerith climbed up to grab hers so Tifa could have a hand free to climb back down the ladder.

"They have emergency shelters set up for you to stay in." Aerith said when they were both safely back down on the ground.

"We don't need it, we've got to get the Crater, don't we?" Tifa still didn't want to see Cloud or Yuffie, but she wasn't going to let her only remaining friend go off alone on a potentially dangerous rescue mission.


	19. Chapter 19

"Are you sure we have everything we need?" Tifa asked Aerith as they trudged through the snow on the path out of town that led towards the Crater. Each woman was pulling a sled with winter survival gear and first aid supplies.

"It better be." Aerith replied. The official search and rescue teams had their own specialized gear just for them and only one store was still open, which didn't have much to offer. "We just need to keep following the compass north. We'll either run into the Crater or the coast."

"Yeah, if we make it that far." Tifa said dismally. She was hoping that they had all made it out safely and this was a false alarm. She didn't want to see any of them again. Well Rude was okay, but Reno, not to mention Cloud and Yuffie, were people so far at the bottom of her list they were on a different page, and wanting them to be okay bothered her as much as wanting them to not be did. She also secretly wondered why Reno didn't mock her when Cloud told her they were through.

"When we get out of here, you're buying me a new helicopter." Reno told Cloud, certain it had been damaged beyond repair.

"When we get out of here, your naked modeling days in front of my wife are over." Cloud retorted.

"Can you could help us move some of these boulders so we can unblock the entrance?" Rude asked Cloud, not having any clue what the blonde warrior was talking about, but he really was getting tired of hearing about his partner's naked escapades.

"Oh, Cloud can't do that, his ribs and hands aren't healed enough yet." Yuffie explained before Cloud had a chance to.

"You're injured? _That's_ why you wanted our help? I told you bringing a pregnant chick on a mission was bad luck!" Reno exclaimed, trying to cover his embarrassment at how he woke up with frustration.

"Quit whining and help me!" Rude told him sharply.

"Use your Buster sword and get us out of here!" Reno tried to order Cloud.

"So make a sword blast to blow the rocks to smithereens and set off an avalanche that kills us all? That's a great plan!" Cloud snapped.

"As good as your plan as just waiting for someone to rescue us when no one knows where we are?" Reno fired back.

"You guys aren't helping." Rude interjected, to which Yuffie quickly agreed. "So just see if you can help me move these boulders, partner." he told Reno, who sulkily complied..

"What's this?" Yuffie asked, picking up an unusual feather on the ground when she and Cloud started examining the other side of the cave.

"Let me see that!" Cloud took the feather from her.

"Great, we're moving boulders and they're checking out animal remains." Reno muttered sourly under his breath and noticed an oddly shaped rock in his path. When he went to kick it out of the way, it didn't move, but the cave wall behind Cloud and Yuffie did. It rumbled and disappeared, and a shaft of soft white light poured out of the newly revealed passageway.

"Well, that works too." Rude smiled.

"Zack! Zack!" Cloud called out as he and Yuffie quickly but cautiously strode down the passageway, Reno and Rude following them.

"I think we should make camp for the night here." Aerith told Tifa when it started to snow.

"That's fine with me, it's getting too cold for me anyway." Tifa told her. They set up their canvas tent wearily as the snowstorm worsened. They hurriedly got all their supplies inside and Tifa zipped the door closed, grateful to keep the wind out.

"I'll set up the heater while you find dinner." Aerith said, getting the small square battery-operated heater out. To conserve power, it only worked for four hours at a time, and the heat was dispensed through a single burner at the top that would let you cook as well. "I wonder why Cloud wanted to go to the Crater." she mused as they ate dinner.

"I wouldn't know, obviously he's been living his life without me for a long time." Tifa bitterly replied.

"We should get into our sleeping bags as soon as we're done eating so we don't waste the heater time." Aerith wisely changed the subject, but she was privately relieved that Tifa was starting to accept the truth, even if she wasn't happy about it.

As the quartet traveled down the long passageway, Reno turned to Rude. "If we don't get out of here soon, I say we eat Cloud first." he whispered.

Rude was about to tell him to shut up when they both ran into Cloud and Yuffie who had stopped suddenly. "What…" he started to say until he saw the snow-covered figure crawling down the passageway towards them. Everyone tensed up and assumed battle stances until the figure got closer.

"Zack!" Cloud exclaimed and ran towards him. The other three followed more slowly. "I've been looking for you for ages!"

"Zack." the cold man repeated the name as he became aware of their presence, looking around him in confusion. "Who is Zack?"


	20. Chapter 20

"You don't know who you are? Do you know who we are?" Cloud asked.

Zack shook his head. "It's cold!"

"What do we do now?" Yuffie asked the others, as Zack shivered on the floor, seemingly too weak to walk. Rude took his jacket off and put it around him.

"We've got to get him out of here." Cloud insisted.

"So we go see where he came from. If it's not a way out, it might have supplies or something." Reno said calmly, the surprise of seeing Zack again having snapped him out of his snit.

"Am I supposed to know you all?" Zack asked them as the two Turks picked him up off the floor and supported him as they continued down the passageway.

"Don't worry about it." Cloud reassured him as they turned a corner and were confronted with snow and a few small rocks on the ground. More snow fell down from an opening in the ceiling above them

"Too high for us to reach and to small to climb through even if we did." Rude frowned. "At least this is where he got covered with snow, but it's not where he came from." he said, looking at the marks in the snow showing Zack's path started beyond it. "So we should keep going."

After what seemed like hours of more twists and turns they were confronted with more boulders blocking their path. A puzzled look appeared on Zack's face. "Warm." he said, pointing towards the blocked path.

"There must be something beyond them. Let's see if we can move the rocks out of the way." Yuffie said, and climbed on top of the biggest ones on the ground to get the smaller ones out of the way. "Hey, there is warmer air coming from behind them!"

Reno and Rude carefully leaned Zack against the wall for support as they helped Yuffie clear enough of the boulders for a crawlspace big enough for each of them to fit through. Rude went first, then Reno handed Zack through to him and Yuffie followed them.

"Why did you have sex with Tifa?" Cloud asked the question that had been plaguing him since his confrontation with her as soon as he was alone with Reno.

" **What**? Is that really any of your business?" Reno couldn't think of anything he wanted less than to talk about his sexual encounter with Tifa with the man who just broke her heart.

"Just because I can't be happy with her doesn't meant I don't want her to be happy." Cloud told him. "And I definitely don't want her being taken advantage of by someone just looking to score."

"It was consensual, buddy. At least until she started freaking out about it blowing her chances with you, then it became the worst mistake of her life." Reno said in an accusatory tone before clambering up the rocks and through the hole, leaving Cloud without a chance to respond until he climbed through to the other side as well.

The chamber was indeed warmer than the rest of the Crater, and the walls shone with shifting opalescent patterns, giving the cave a mystical yet somber air. Everyone looked around, and Zack pushed himself away from Rude and went to a corner where there was an unusual depression ringed by stumps of stalagmites, which were matched by a ring of broken stalactites on the ceiling. The debris littered the floor, but it didn't seem to bother Zack, he curled up and was soon fast asleep.

"It looks almost like some type of cage." Rude remarked as he examined Zack's sleeping area. "The earthquake must have freed him."

"But how did he get past the boulders in the passageway?" Yuffie asked.

"Maybe they weren't there when he escaped. An aftershock could have done it. It did look like he collapsed where the snow was coming in from the hole in the ceiling." Rude answered her.

"Who cares? It's nice and warm in here. I think Zack's got the best idea yet. Let's get some sleep and figure how to get out of here in the morning." Reno said and laid down on the floor, promptly falling asleep as well. The others shrugged and followed his example.

In the morning, Tifa and Aerith got a nasty surprise when they unzipped the door to their tent after breakfast, and snow fell in.

"It's as high as our tent!" Tifa cried out in dismay as she shook the snow off her hands and immediately tried to get their supplies away from the snow.

"We'll have to leave the tent behind, but we can still make it to the Crater by noon. We just have to get on top of the snow." Aerith reassured her.

That was easier said than done, the snow was light and powdery and once they had all the supplies except for the tent in the sleds, they just kept stepping down a couple feet through the snow and stumbling. Eventually the snow became firm enough for them to have a stable path. They kept checking the compass to make sure they were still going north, because there was a heavy fog that made it hard for them to know which way they were facing.

"Let's stop for lunch here." Tifa said suddenly, tired of endlessly trudging through the snow. Her winter holiday was turning into as much of a joke as her love life was.

"Okay, let me find the lunch packs." Aerith said, and when she stopped and walked back to the side of her sled, she suddenly cried out as she fell into a snow-covered hole.

"Aerith! Are you okay?" Tifa hurried over to her sled and peered down into the hole. "Aerith?"

"I'm fine, it wasn't that long of a fall." Aerith looked around and realized what she had fallen into. "This is the Turks' helicopter! The earthquake must have made it fall on its side and I fell into the cargo hold. We've got to be close to the Crater!"


	21. Chapter 21

Reno was the first to wake up, feeling extremely hungry and he was also surprised to feel something poking his butt. Scooching over, he reached down and was surprised to find that the culprit was a feather. "What is with this place?" he asked out loud, waking everyone else up.

"Angel!" Zack smiled when he noticed the feather in Reno's hand.

"I wonder if he means Angeal and that's who brought him here." Cloud mused, remembering Vincent had also made an angel reference when he mentioned Zack might be in this place.

"But why bring him here of all places?" Yuffie asked.

"Let's ask him." Cloud walked over to Zack, who was still sitting on the floor. "Do you remember an angel bringing you here?"

Zack concentrated for a moment, then looked up at Cloud with a bewildered expression on his face. "You mean I wasn't always here?"

"Since he remembers how to speak, and he obviously has some limited associative memory, his amnesia could be temporary." Rude told them. "If he's gently reintroduced to familiar things, he should remember everything in time."

"We don't have time, we have to get out of here!" Reno's empty stomach was making him cranky again.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Cloud wanted to know.

"Easy, roll some of those boulders in the hallway under the hole in the ceiling and widen it to get out." Yuffie chimed in. Everyone looked at her with embarrassed looks on their faces.

"How come we didn't think of that yesterday?" Rude was chagrined that they missed such an easy solution.

"Who cares, let's try it and get out of here…we need food! But since this was Cloud's mission, if it doesn't work, I still say we eat him first!" Reno exclaimed as he hurried out of the warm chamber to start rolling boulders, Rude not far behind him.

"Can you walk on your own?" Yuffie asked Zack. He had some trouble standing up, so Yuffie and Cloud supported him back into the passageway where the two Turks were already busy at work.

Soon they had enough boulders in place for Reno to reach the hole if he stood on Rude's shoulders. He took out his electro-rod to gently tap the stone around the hole, not only because he didn't want to damage his weapon, but also to see how thick and strong the stone was.

Remembering what Rude said about Zack's memory, and bored with just standing there, Cloud turned to Zack. "Do you know what this is?" he took the Buster sword out of its sheath and handed it out to him.

Zack stared at it for a few moments before reaching out and grasping the hilt. Suddenly a blast shot out from it and hit the wall near Rude and Reno, causing them to fall. As Reno fell, he accidentally hit the trigger button on his weapon and a bolt of lightning shot through the  
hole in the ceiling.

The fog started to lift as Aerith and Tifa finished their lunch. "Good, now we can see where we're going." Tifa commented as they started out again, each woman being careful to use a ski pole to test the ground in front of her. When they could see the Crater, they changed their direction slightly to keep themselves heading in a straight line towards it.

"Did you see that?" Aerith exclaimed as lightning appeared in the Crater.

"Yeah, but it came from the ground, not the sky, that means..." Tifa started to say.

"Reno's there, so the others should be too!" Aerith picked up the pace as fast as she could, keeping her eyes on where the lightning came from.

"Time for plan B." Rude said as he picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off. "Right, Reno?" he turned to ask his partner who was hidden by the stack of boulders. "Reno?" Concerned, he went to check on him. "Dammit!"

"What's wrong?" Yuffie hurried over to see, and saw the unconscious red-headed Turk lying on the floor with his right leg bent at an awkward angle and his head bleeding. "Uh-oh..."

"He's still alive." Rude sighed with relief as he checked his pulse. "I don't think his head wound is serious, but we don't have any way to set his leg."

"So what do we do now?" Yuffie asked.

"If the Buster sword didn't start an avalanche when it went off, should we try and use it to widen the hole?" Cloud wondered.

"We can't get out with Reno down, so I don't think it matters now." Rude offered his opinion. "We might as well just try and sleep some more and see what happens."

"It came from around here, didn't it?" Aerith asked Tifa as they got out of their sleds after riding down the snowy rim of the Crater.

"I think so." Tifa replied. "Hello?" she called out as she walked around, Aerith doing the same in a different direction. "Can anyone hear us?"

"Do you hear that?" Yuffie asked the others.

"Probably just some birds." Cloud said dispiritedly, then the sounds got closer. "Wait...is that...Tifa!" he yelled out, and the others added their voices.

"I hear something!" Tifa told Aerith, who found the small hole first.

"Hello? Are you guys okay?" Aerith yelled down through the hole.

"Not quite, do you have a first aid and rope with you?" Rude asked.

"Just a minute, lemme get our supplies." Aerith replied as Tifa was already dragging the sleds over. She handed Aerith the hammer and pitons, and she used the hammer to widen the hole and carefully threw them down so Rude could hammer them into the cave wall and climb out.

"We've got injured down here, they need some treatment before we can leave." Rude told him as he stood in the open air for a moment before rummaging through their supplies to find what he needed. "And we all could use food. Oh, and um...you better get down there, Aerith."

Curious as to why his voice sounded different when he said that, Aerith climbed down and gasped, the sound echoing. Tifa saw her just standing there at the bottom with her hand over her mouth, and was curious as to what so surprised her friend. She gasped as well to see Zack supported by Cloud and Yuffie. He was staring hard at Aerith, and then moved away from them, taking hesitant steps on his own towards her. He reached out his hand and gently laid it on her cheek. "Flowers?" he asked.


	22. Chapter 22

A sob tore from Aerith's throat as she threw her arms around Zack, to reassure herself that he was flesh and blood while tears of joy rolled down her cheeks. Tifa felt her own eyes start to water as she watched the happy reunion, then Rude came back down with the medical supplies and food, asking her to help him set Reno's broken leg. Luckily he was still unconscious, only coming to as Rude was wrapping his leg with an ace bandage, using Reno's weapon as a splint. Tifa was leaning over him in her low-cut tight winter sweater, starting to clean his head wound when his eyes opened to her breasts almost shoved in his face, and he automatically licked his lips.

"Oh, you're awake. I don't think your head wound is serious, but your broken leg is another story." Tifa informed him, a frosty edge creeping into her voice when she saw Reno's customary smirk appearing on his face as his eyes casually sauntered upwards to look in hers.

"I'll be fine in no time." he replied nonchalantly. "I'm a Turk after all. And I don't suppose you would mind handing me some food?" Tifa bit back the response that popped into her head, and grabbed one of the food packs and handed it to Reno before trying to bandage his head, while Rude gently informed Aerith of Zack's memory issues and warned her to go slow with him, to make sure she wouldn't shock him into further memory loss.

"That's the best I can do." Tifa said when she finished with his head, waiting for his "I told you so." about Cloud, but he just asked her for a spoon and fork.

"I told you, I'll be fine." Reno mumbled as he hungrily shoveled the food in his mouth. When he looked at her when he was done to ask if they could spare more food, he noticed she was distracted by watching Aerith feed Zack with a wistful expression on her face. Cloud also noticed, while he and Yuffie ate as well, wisely keeping away from Tifa, but he was more interested in how Reno and Tifa were interacting.

"Okay, how are we going to get Reno out of here?" Tifa asked when everyone was done eating. She felt out of sorts, not only by being surrounded by the people she never wanted to see again, but by Reno treating her with casual indifference. Not to mention seeing Zack and Aerith's reunion only served to reinforce her loneliness as she played nursemaid to the man she had been so wildly intimate with, and having her hands on him again put her off more.

"We'll get everyone else out, then use the rope to make a harness with for him." Rude replied. "He'll go up with me." Yuffie went up first, followed by Cloud, Zack, and Aerith. Tifa climbed up next, and threw the rope down to Rude who made the harness and secured Reno to his back, then climbed up slowly.

"I think we'll have to pull Reno in one of the sleds." Aerith said in one of the first sentences she had uttered since she had been reunited with Zack. "It's too far back to Icicle for Rude to support him."

So they put all the supplies in one sled and Reno in the other. Tifa and Rude took turns pulling Reno while Zack and Aerith pulled the supplies sled. "Stop!" Reno shouted when they reached the helicopter, and crawled out to it. He dug in the snow and soon uncovered two of the rotor blades. "Dammit!" he cursed as he saw one of them was bent. "So much for flying you outta here, old girl." He crawled on the snow back to the sled and got back in it with a morose expression on his face.

"Back to our tent then." Tifa said, unexpectedly feeling a mixture of sympathy for Reno laced with humor at how he was almost pouting over the damaged helicopter. She hadn't known how important his helicopter was to him. They made good time back to their tent, even with an injured party member, thanks to having already made a decent path, and the good weather holding, cold but clear.

"I don't think we should bother with the heater tonight." Aerith suggested. "With all seven of us, it's gonna be kinda crowded and our body heat should make it comfortable, since the tent was only made for two."

"That's fine with me." Reno said, crawling out of the sled again and claiming one of the sleeping bags.

"There's not enough to go around, you can't hog it all to yourself." Rude protested.

"So who wants to share with me?" Reno asked. "And you can't do it, buddy." he quickly told Rude.

"Cloud and Yuffie will share the other sleeping bag, Rude can use a blanket, and we'll use the other two." Aerith announced, putting her hand over Zack's.

"So I'll share the sleeping bag with _him_ I guess." Tifa said through clenched teeth. "If you try _anything_ , I'll make sure you never fly again." she whispered fiercely to Reno as she got in the sleeping bag with him, as tense as a bowstring.

"I told ya before, I don't want chicks who don't want me." Reno replied before he started snoring.

Tifa lay there in momentary disbelief at his apparent dismissal of her before she fell asleep too.


	23. Chapter 23

Cloud and Yuffie woke up first thing in the morning, and when she turned over in his arms to face him, they were both disappointed when he bumped into Zack, reminding them that their honeymoon wasn't private. Zack was muttering about angels and flowers as he woke up, and Aerith smiled at seeing him still there next to her. "Well, I'll be..." Rude said, and everyone turned to look at Reno and Tifa, who sometime during the night had started snuggling with each other.

"I always like a little sugar in the morning with my coffee." Reno sleepily mumbled just before he opened his eyes. "Oh, it's _you_." he said and quickly separated from Tifa.

"Yes, it's **me** , the woman who just rescued your ass." Tifa retorted, though she found herself blushing at the memories that the lingering sensations of his warm arms around her brought back. "Let's eat breakfast and get back to Icicle." she said to everyone as she began to rummage through their supplies for the food, personally handing everyone their breakfast, except for Cloud and Yuffie, who she just tossed the food paks to, still refusing to really look at them.

"And I remembered how much you liked my ass." Reno couldn't help whispering to her.

Tifa frowned as she blushed harder, her half-formed thought of apologizing to him for that fight the morning after they had sex dissipating. "Just eat your stupid food so we can get out of here." she told him.

"It _is_ stupid food." he agreed. "Cause it's not your homecooking, but it's still food." Reno gulped it down.

Tifa stared hard at him as she started eating her breakfast. Did he just pay her a compliment? she wondered. "Are you always like this?" Tifa wanted to know.

"Like what?" Reno asked as he finished eating.

"Rude one minute and complimentary the next." Tifa elaborated her question.

"He's Rude, not me." Reno teased her as he pointed at his longtime partner.

"Can't you ever give me a straight answer?" Tifa found herself getting exasperated with him.

"Can't you ever give an injured guy a break and flirt back?" Reno responded in kind.

"You were _**flirting**_ with me?" Tifa was taken aback by his question.

"Tried to anyway. Can we go now?" he asked the group, and since everyone else was also done eating, they resumed their trek back to Icicle. Reno smiled the whole way, since he always had a special fondness for feisty tough women, and nothing made his day like some verbal sparring with them. His amusement increased as he imagined what Tifa's reaction would be if he started yelling _Mush!_ as she pulled his sled, while she wondered why she was helping the most frustrating man she ever met.

"Have I been here before?" Zack asked Aerith as they entered Icicle.

"I'm not sure." she told him. "I was born here."

"Was I?" Zack looked around the arctic village that was still recovering from the earthquake damage.

"No, you weren't born here." Aerith shot a quick glance at Rude to make sure it was okay to answer, continuing after he nodded reassuringly at her. "You were born in Gongaga village."

"Oh. Okay." Zack said, feeling vaguely troubled by the name not sounding familiar to him. "Are you taking me back there?"

"When you're ready, she probably will." Cloud said before Aerith could reply. "And if you want, you can stay with me and Yuffie in Wutai for as…ow! What was that for?" Cloud demanded of his bride when Yuffie elbowed him as she shot a glance towards Tifa. "Oh." Cloud realized belatedly how tactless he was being, and judging from the expression on Tifa's face, trying to apologize would only make matters worse.

"What hotel are you staying at?" Rude asked to change the subject, while Reno took his cellphone out to call Tseng and report the situation, now that they had service again.

"The…uh…it's the…um…Igloo Inn." Cloud sheepishly replied, his cheeks turning pink.

"Nice, man!" Reno exclaimed at Cloud's mentioning the name of a hotel famous, or rather infamous, for being able to fulfill any fantasy of its wealthy clientele. Reno had never met a woman he wanted to vacation with, so hadn't visited it yet, but he had always wanted to.

"Okay do you want us to contact you for transport home or are you going back on your own?" Rude inquired, ignoring his partner's comment.

"Yeah we can use a ride home." Yuffie said. "We'll be waiting for your call."

"Would you have room for us too?" Aerith asked, gesturing to indicate she meant Zack, herself, and Tifa.

"Yeah I'll fly ya home too." Reno told them. "You helped us, we'll help you. That's only fair."

Tifa, who was about to protest spending any more time near Cloud and Yuffie, turned thoughtful as Reno's statement reminded her of Mrs. Beasley telling her to be fair to them. "I'm going to go get our stuff from the emergency shelter." she told Aerith and walked off.

When the helicopter landed, Tseng got and approached the group. "Our doctor is waiting in Junon to check you over." he informed Reno, then turned to Rude. "Both of you, inside now."

"They're coming with us." Rude included the rest of the group.

"Very well." Tseng said. "Get in, all of you."

"I'm flying us home." Reno stated.

"Not until our doctor has cleared you." Tseng told him, and once everyone had boarded, the helicopter took off with a very sulky Reno sitting with the other passengers instead of in the pilot's seat.

"I want off first." Tifa announced over the intercom. When they reached the city limits, she turned to Reno and took a deep breath, steeling herself for what she was about to say. "I'm…I'm sorry about the fight."

"I accept your apology, and you didn't even have to get down on your knees for it." Reno heard himself muttering under his breath.

"What?" Tifa asked, the sound of the helicopter's blades making her not sure she heard his comment right.

"Uh, nothing." It was Reno's turn to blush, not wanting to admit his dream about her. "I'll see ya around."

Tifa got off the helicopter after saying goodbye to everyone but Cloud and Yuffie, and Wutai was the next stop. Before Cloud got off, he turned to Reno. "A word of advice, Tifa likes daffodils." he told him, neglecting to mention that she liked them more because the word 'daffodil' was so amusing to her than for the flower's unusual beauty. "Thanks for your help, guys!" he yelled once he was on the ground and they took off again.


	24. Chapter 24

_Six months later_

"I know your people have different customs, but why a wedding dress that's half-black and half-green?" Tifa asked Aerith as they left the bridal store where Aerith had placed her special order.

"The black signifies your death, well I mean the death of who you were and your loneliness, and the green is to ensure growth of your new life and your happiness." Aerith smiled. Zack still had some memory loss, but he now remembered enough that he had proposed to her over the weekend, and she didn't want to wait any longer, so the wedding was scheduled to take place in two weeks, just long enough to get all the preparations made and make sure the guests could free up their schedule.

"Okay so wedding and bridesmaid dresses are now done, and we ordered the wedding invitations online, gift registry was also done online, so that just leaves the cake, music, rehearsal dinner, and bachelorette party." Tifa looked at her wedding planning checklist that she had started when Aerith asked her to be the Maid of Honor and help out.

"Oh, I want to invite Mrs. Beasley too, but she hasn't gotten herself an email address yet. Would you mind hand-delivering her one, and asking her and the other Stitching Bitches to do my wedding cake?" Aerith asked. "I'd deliver the invitation myself, but Zack's parents are flying in early, since they haven't met me yet, only heard Zack talk about me when he made his first trip back home a few weeks ago."

"Yeah, I can do that." Tifa replied, thinking how she hadn't seen Ellie for a while, but then she'd been really busy lately.

Tifa made a beeline for the free bar at the wedding reception. Seeing Zack and Aerith's happiness, and a very pregnant Yuffie with a very attentive Cloud had made her want to drown her lonely sorrows. "What can I get you, Miss?" the bartender asked.

"The strongest drink you have." Tifa demanded.

"You own your own bar and you don't know the name of what you want to drink?" a voice said behind her.

"Reno! What are you doing here? I didn't see you at the wedding." Tifa was surprised to see him again, since she hadn't seen him since the flight home from Icicle.

"I'm security, not a guest, so you weren't supposed to see me. I don't do weddings unless I'm paid to." he explained. "So how come you own a bar and don't know what you want to drink?"

"I don't really drink, and I sold the bar." Tifa replied. After she got back from Icicle, she had reluctantly realized she couldn't go on like she had been, not with Cloud out of the picture. So she had decided to sell the bar and figure out what to do with her life, besides the painting classes she regularly attended.

"Well, it's funner to sample everything." Reno said something to the bartender who put out two shot glasses and five different bottles. "Okay let's start with these."

"Hey man, you're supposed to be protecting the guests, not getting drunk on the clock." Rude found Reno and Tifa at a little table by themselves with the five bottles half an hour later.

"I am." Reno smugly told his partner. "You forget this woman is a highly skilled martial artist, and if she gets drunk, she can be a threat, so I'm keeping an eye on her."

"Yeah right…if Tseng or Rufus catches you, you're on your own." Rude told him.

"I don't think I have to worry about that." Reno said as he noticed Mrs. Beasley approaching the table where Tseng and Rufus were seated.

"Well, hello you fine young hotties, I'll just take this empty seat if you don't mind." Ellie sat down between them. She opened her large bag and took out a ball of yarn and her knitting needles. "Wasn't that such a lovely wedding? It's about time Aerith got married so she could learn how great sex is, don't you agree?" she asked as Tseng and Rufus just stared at her. "Oh, where are my manners? I should have introduced myself, I'm Ellie Beasley, proud founding member of the Stitching Bitches."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Beasley." Tseng and Rufus blurted out automatically, their ingrained manners the only thing allowing them to speak.

"Would you mind holding this for me?" Ellie handed her ball of yarn to Rufus. "It's such a shame that one can't hold balls in their hand and knit at the same time, isn't it?" she winked at him as she started knitting. "Why are there are no women sitting with you two? If you're both single, don't you know a wedding is a perfect place to pick up women?"

"I...um…my work comes before a social life." Tseng answered first, stuttering in surprise at the older woman's uninhibitedness.

"My rascally neighbor Reno is a workaholic too, but he _always_ makes time for women. You might want to consider signing up to be a model for an art class, it works wonders since the women know exactly what they're getting ahead of time. Tifa was in the class when Reno modeled, and look at them now." Ellie said, gesturing in their direction.

"I like this one the best." Tifa tapped the blue bottle.

"You probably would. It's for lightweights. This one however, is the real deal." Reno grabbed the amber bottle. "And I'll take another shot of it now."

"You shouldn't drink so much, it's not good for you." Tifa told him, feeling slightly buzzed. "I'm done for now."

"I can hold my liquor as well as I can hold my women." Reno smirked.

"Don't you ever get bored with it all? I mean the lack of stability in your life." Tifa was genuinely curious about him.

"Why? Life isn't stable to begin with. I ain't got no complaints. I like the people I work with in a job that's never dull, I get paid plenty, never sleep alone if I don't want to, and I get to travel all over the world. My life is perfect!" Reno informed her after he downed the shot glass.

"I wish mine was." Tifa sighed. "But I'm just going to watch everyone else have their happily ever after, I guess."

Reno frowned. He didn't like depressed women, and then he remembered what Cloud had said when they had dropped him off in Wutai. "So why do you like daffodils?"

Tifa couldn't help but giggle at his question. "Ask me again."

"Ask you again why you like daffodils?" Reno was puzzled at her response.

Tifa giggled harder. "You said daffodils!"

"Okay yeah, you've definitely had enough to drink." Reno said when Tifa's giggles turned into hiccups and her face started turning red. She tried to get up out of her chair to go to the ladies' room, but her heel got caught in one of the rungs and she fell to the floor before he could catch her. "Come on, let's get you up off your knees." he told her, helping her back up.

Tifa stared at him as she also remembered something from their helicopter ride. "You…you said something about me being on my knees in the helicopter, didn't you?"

"Oh…um…that was nothing." Reno felt embarrassed once again, since he had realized during his recovery in Junon that Rude had been right, Tifa was classier than most of the women he knew. "Weren't you going to the bathroom?"

"What did you mean?" Tifa persisted with a stubborn glint in her eyes as she tried to get her hiccups under control.

"Oral sex." Reno finally muttered.

"You wanted me to do that to you? Why?" Tifa wasn't sure if she was more offended or intrigued.

"It was just a comment." Reno said, downing another shot.

"So you don't want me?" Tifa demanded.

"I thought we've been over this before." Reno reminded. "Besides, you're looking for a committed long-term relationship. I'm not."

"What's wrong with wanting to be loved?" Tifa indignantly fired the question at him.

"Nothing at all." Reno agreed. "I told you, I've loved tons of women, and it was definitely worthwhile every time."

"Did you love me?" she asked wistfully.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Reno felt his cheeks heat up more. "Do you have to talk about feelings? That's such a buzz kill."

"You're cute when you're blushing." Tifa smiled. Catching a glimpse of Cloud and Yuffie acting all lovey-dovey, she impulsively leaned forward and kissed Reno full on the lips.

"What'd ya do that for?" Reno's cheeks became more inflamed. Tifa tried to answer but she started hiccupping again as Aerith approached their table with Zack in tow.

"There you are, I was worried about you when you disappeared when we got here." Aerith said, startling Tifa into more hiccups at the bride's sudden appearance.

"You sure were a beautiful bride for a Dirty Girl." Reno told her to give Tifa a chance to catch her breath as Aerith glanced at the shot glasses and bottles on the table and the fading blush on Reno's cheeks.

"Thanks, Flaming Spikes." A slightly mischievous smile appeared on the new bride's face over the use of their old nicknames for each other back in the day, his related to his hair, and hers about her gardening. "It's time to throw my bouquet, do you wanna try for it or go home, Teef?"

"I'll try my luck." Tifa managed to reply, and followed Aerith over to the middle of the banquet hall.

"Everyone ready?" Aerith called out to all the single women who had gathered for the bouquet toss, who all exclaimed their readiness. "Three…two…one!" Aerith threw her bouquet behind her, and Tifa almost caught it, but another hiccup caused her to miss by deflecting it, right into Elena's hands, who was wondering why she was even bothering with something so silly. But once she had the bouquet in her hands, she looked towards the table where Tseng and Rufus still sat with Mrs. Beasley, and Rude was there as well talking to his bosses. They all looked horrified at her checking them out with the bouquet in her hands, and she smiled mysteriously. Tifa started walking away with a sad expression on her face and headed for the door, so Aerith whispered something in Zack's ear, who looked perplexed but nodded and went over to Reno's table.

"Reno, Tifa needs to go home now, would you mind doing the honors?" Zack asked him.

"Sure, there aren't any women worth staying around for anyway." Reno replied, glad to have an excuse to leave the wedding, and headed over to the entrance. "Hey, wait up!" he called out to the fleeing Tifa.

"Are you following me?" Tifa wasn't happy to have her attempt at a quiet escape foiled.

"Just wondering if you wanted to blow this popsicle stand together." Reno offered.

Tifa's first thought was to object so she could be upset in private, but she realized she probably shouldn't drive herself. Even though she didn't think she was really drunk, she didn't want to take any chances. "Fine."

"We'll use your car, I just need your keys." he told her.

"Here you go." Tifa rummaged in her purse and handed him the keys to her jeep.

"Okay, let's get outta here." Reno shoved the keys in his pocket until they reached her jeep and he unlocked the passenger door for her before getting in the driver's seat and starting the car.


	25. Chapter 25

"So why don't you like weddings?" Tifa asked Reno during the car ride back to her place after she gave him directions.

"Bad luck. Most of the women who go to those things are either already married or desperate to be. And as I told you, I don't want a 'committed' relationship." Reno braked for a red light, wondering why he was being so talkative with Tifa. "You keep things casual, it makes sure no one gets hurt."

Tifa mulled that over as he continued driving. She had never considered that his love 'em and leave 'em routine might be his way of trying to protect himself and the women he slept with. With how dangerous his job was, it made a certain sort of sense, even if all the life-threatening situations she had been in just made her want the stability of a loving partner that much more. She frowned, thinking of all the times she had referred to him as Mr. Skank. "I'm…I'm sorry, Reno."

"Sorry for what?" he asked guardedly as he pulled to a stop in front of her new apartment. He hoped she wasn't going to go on about how she felt sorry for him, having anyone pity him was beyond unacceptable.

"For all the nasty thoughts I had about you." she confessed.

"Oh. Don't worry about it, you don't have to apologize to me for everything. Hey, how come you live in this dump?" he replied, looking more closely at her apartment building, changing the subject before he started to blush again at being caught off-guard by her second apology.

"It was a better investment than buying a house." she told him as she got out of her jeep.

"Are you kidding me?" Reno stared at her.

"No, the rent's cheap enough that with the money from selling the bar and the money that Cloud gave me when he sold his delivery business, I can send Denzel and Marlene to good private schools while I take figure out what to do with my life, besides my art classes." she explained. "And I get to spend a lot more time with them."

"How come we didn't take them home with us?" Reno asked, feeling stupid that he hadn't thought about them or wondered about their absence from Tifa's side until now.

"This is their monthly weekend with Cloud." Tifa's voice had only a trace of bitterness.

"Well, here are your car keys." Reno didn't want to get into her issues with Cloud again, so he handed the keys back to her through the passenger side window before he got out himself and took out his cell phone to call Rude to pick him up. "See you around."

"Would…would you walk me upstairs?" Tifa hoped she didn't sound desperate, but the thought of being alone after a wedding was just too depressing, and having a few more moments of someone to talk to was irresistible.

"Um, sure. Oh, nothing Rude, I'm at Tifa's and I'll need you to pick me up in a few." Reno said before hanging up the phone. "There's no elevator?" he asked her when they entered the lobby.

"No, costs too much to maintain. I told you the rent's cheap." Tifa said as she grabbed his hand to lead him to the stairwell. Reno felt a bit uncomfortable yet relaxed at the same time, her warm hand holding his as they walked up the stairs to the third floor.

* * *

Vincent was surprised by the knock on his door, since everyone he knew went to Cloud and Yuffie's wedding and he thought they'd still be there. He had spent most of the day trying to figure out what to do with his coffin now that he had his own apartment, and enjoying that people left him alone to do it. "Elena! What are you doing here?"

"Do you know what this means?" A rather tipsy Elena asked Vincent as she showed him the wedding bouquet she was still holding tightly in her hands as she barged past him.

"You went to a florist? What for?" Vincent was confused by her visit and her behavior.

"No, silly. It means you're mine tonight. Us Turks are a breed apart, but you're…" Elena's words were slurred, and she paused until she remembered why she had come here. "You're going to show me how much of a beast you are!" Elena tossed the bouquet aside and stuck her hand down his pants with one hand while her other hand pulled his head down to hers for a sloppy kiss.

* * *

"At least you must get plenty of exercise going up and down these stairs all the time." Reno remarked when he and Tifa reached the third floor landing.

"I actually only go out once or twice a week, for my art class or to buy groceries." she explained when they stopped in front of her door.

"You're taking art classes still?" he asked her, a smirk starting to appear on his face as he fondly remembered modeling for her first class.

"It's something creative for me to do while I figure out what to do with my life now." Tifa replied as she looked in her purse for her keys.

"Do you still have my painting?" Reno's smirk was now a full-blown Chesire cat grin.

Tifa whipped her head up to stare at him, the sudden change in movement causing her to drop her keys. "Crap!" she exclaimed in frustration.

"Here ya go." Reno knelt down to snatch her keyring off the floor and handed it back to her. "But you didn't answer my question."

Tifa couldn't help but let out another giggle as she unlocked the door. "Now _you're_ the one on **your** knees. Come on inside."

"Um, okay." Reno answered a bit warily, her teasing and invitation seemed out of character for her, unless she wasn't thinking what he was. He frowned slightly as he realized she probably wasn't, but he followed her inside anyway. "Not bad." he remarked, looking over the well-kept apartment, rather at odds with the seedy building it was housed in.

"Thanks." she replied, putting her purse on the coffee table in the living room. "This way, please." Tifa kept walking to another door and opened it. Reno was surprised that it was her bedroom, and she reached under her bed and pulled out a huge storage drawer filled with paintings. Tifa carefully took out her nude portrait of them. "Here it is."

"How come you don't have this hanging up for all to see?" Reno wanted to know. "It's a work of art!"

"I'm not hanging up naked pictures when I have two young children!" Tifa exclaimed. "Do you want it?" she asked hesitantly, torn between wanting to keep what her painting instructor assured her was proof of her talent and not wanting to keep something so blatantly sexual around.

Reno's frown returned. "The painting's great, but where would I put it at my place? I don't want you looking at me while I have sex with other women!"

"That would bother you?" Tifa's curiosity was peaked. "You like being on display, don't you?"

"Of course I like letting people know how great my body is!" Reno blurted out. "But having a picture of me with another woman in the same room would ruin the mood for both of us."

Tifa turned thoughtful as an idea popped into her head, one that she would have immediately dismissed once upon a time, before Cloud left her in shambles. She was trying to redirect her life anyway. "Well, there is an alternative, if you're up to trying something new."

"You forget who you're talking to!" Reno haughtily replied. "Wait, what did you have in mind?"

"I'll tell you in the morning." Tifa's voice was sharp as her way to combat the nervousness she felt for what she was going to propose to him. "But first, I'd…I'd like you to teach me how to do this." She knelt awkwardly in her Maid of Honor dress before him.

"Are you serious?" Reno stared blankly at her. This wasn't the Tifa he knew…

"Yes!" she almost shrieked, hurriedly unfastening his pants. "You did say you wanted this. Okay, what do I do now?" Tifa asked quickly as she gazed at his flaccid member, wanting this over with before she lost her nerve.

"Um, open wide." Reno felt himself start to harden as he looked down at her, his eyes fixated on her breasts, and he idly wondered if he was asleep and this was another daydream. It felt unreal, and then he shrugged…worst case scenario, he'd wake up in another boring briefing with Tseng stating the obvious, but he'd have one hell of a boner to liven things up. "Now take me in your mouth."

"You showered before you got dressed for the wedding, right?" Tifa's maternally inspired germophobia kicked in.

"Yes, I did. I'll help you since this is your first time." Reno put his hands firmly on her head and gently entered her. He had to fight the urge to laugh at the absurdity of it all, so he could give Tifa proper instructions. She diligently tried to follow them, but it was still a mess as she started gagging when he came in her mouth.

"I…I need a shower." Tifa managed to say. She didn't know what she had expected oral sex to be like, but she wasn't prepared for how sloppy it was.

"Don't worry, it takes time to get used to." Reno felt obligated to reassure her as she bolted for the bathroom, it had been almost sweet how hard she tried.

"You're still here?" Tifa asked when she got done with her shower and found him looking over her DVD collection.

"Mind if I clean up too?" Reno asked. "I just need the sink."

"Oh…um, okay." Tifa replied, blushing a little over her lapse of courtesy, of course he'd need to clean himself up too.

Reno came back out, drying his hands off with a washcloth, which he just negligently tossed back towards the bathroom, then refastened his pants. "Thanks, I'll see you later." he told her.

"You go pick that washcloth up and put it in the hamper!" Tifa snapped at him. "Why are you smiling like that?"

Reno was relieved as he complied with her demand. "Because that's the Tifa I know." He stopped in front of her on his way to the door, and leaned down to give her a perfunctory goodbye kiss, but the spark he felt when their lips touched gave him another idea, and he picked her up and carried her to her bed.

"What are you doing?" Tifa asked him.

"It's only fair if I return the favor you just did for me." Reno untied her bathrobe, exposing her body to him.

Tifa half-opened her mouth, but whatever she had wanted to say was silenced as he kissed her again. For all his faults, he was the most sexually experienced man she knew, and low moans escaped from her lips as his mouth trailed down her body.

Tifa gasped as she felt his tongue, her moans getting louder and louder as her body reveled in his expertise. "Fuck me until you love me!" she heard herself crying out as she orgasmed.

Reno looked up at her. "What did you just say?"

Tifa's cheeks turned even redder. She hadn't meant to say that out loud. "I…um…want you to stay the night…please!"

"If you insist…" Reno started taking his tuxedo off.

* * *

Rude parked in front of Tifa's apartment building, and honked in the code he and Reno had come up with, when he didn't see his partner waiting for him. When Reno still didn't show up, he called him, and after the third attempt with no answer, Rude started cursing Reno's perversion as he drove off again.

* * *

Reno groaned in disgust as the sunlight shone in his eyes, waking him up. He smelled food and realized he wasn't in his own bed. "Tifa?" he called out.

"I'm in the kitchen!" she replied.

Reno flopped himself out of her bed and headed into the kitchen. "You're a morning person, aren't you?" he asked her almost grumpily when she smiled at him.

"And you're a night owl." she replied in a friendly tone. "I thought you might be hungry." She handed him a plate of pancakes and eggs. "Bacon or sausage?"

"Bacon, I don't need any sausage but my own!" Reno retorted, taking the utensils from her as he sat down at the table. "It's morning, what alternative did you want to suggest about the painting?" He felt slightly uncomfortable with her casual niceness and wasn't sure why, so he wanted to get back to business, so to speak.

"That we keep it at your place, just for storage. You don't have to hang it up at all." Tifa carefully chose her words so as not to spook him. "But I might need to come and look at it once in a while."

"I suppose." Reno looked as if he had just swallowed a worm. "But I'm not giving you a key to my place!"

"That's fine, I can just text you when I need to look at it if that's okay." Tifa said. "And thanks for last night."

"You know it's just sex, right? I don't want anything serious." Reno reminded her.

"Fair enough. Would you mind if I need that from you again too?" Tifa gently asked him.

"Fine, as long as you don't try and turn this into a relationship." Reno agreed as he finished eating his breakfast. "Are there seconds?"

* * *

"I'm glad you have such a big bathtub." Tifa said as Reno insisted on joining her.

"One of the perks of being second-in-command." Reno said as he playfully fondled her breasts.

"You know the wedding's in two hours, we don't want to be late." she half-chided him, even as her body eagerly responded to his caresses.

"We have plenty of time." Reno smirked before kissing her.

"You always say that." Tifa reminded him, even as she repositioned herself in the tub to accommodate him. "It's a good thing you know what you're doing."

"And don't you forget it!" Reno exclaimed as he entered her.

"Never!" Tifa promised him. Water splashed onto the floor as he thrust into her and she returned his kiss while her hands ran over his back, barely stopping herself from clawing him as he easily made her climax again.

"I think that will have to last you until tonight." Reno teased as he pushed her hair back from her face. "You did say something about not being late, didn't you?"

As they dressed for Elena and Vincent's wedding, Tifa couldn't help but smile at the last two years. She had meant it when she told Reno she wanted him to fuck her until he loved her, but she wasn't going to make the same mistake she had with Cloud and was careful to just see how things worked out instead of trying to force it. Her patience had paid off, and he had asked her to move in three weeks earlier. Reno had been so adorably nervous about suggesting it, so she pretended to be totally casual about accepting so he wouldn't feel trapped. "I'm ready, what about you?" she asked Reno when she finished adjusting her dress.

"Sure, let's go." Reno said, a bit grumpy about having to wear a proper tuxedo again.

"Lead on, handsome." Tifa had learned how to flirt courtesy of her relationship with Reno.

* * *

Elena took a deep breath as she got into her wedding dress. "I feel like a dress-up doll." she complained to Ellie Beasley, who was helping her as a favor to Reno.

"But you're such a pretty one. You really don't need my help, so why don't I go check on the groom? Men are so flighty, you know." Mrs. Beasley suggested.

"You don't know the half of it." Elena stated. She knew that Reno's neighbor had no clue about his real job or Vincent's condition, so was careful to not let anything drop. "I'd appreciate you checking on him." When Mrs. Beasley left, Elena sighed. She didn't know what she was doing, marrying Vincent. It was absurd…sure she pretty much forced herself on him when she was drunk after Zack and Aerith's wedding, which had resulted in her giving birth to twins, but…she sighed again and reminded herself he was willing to be a stay-at-home dad since he was basically retired and she was still working.

* * *

"My, aren't you turning out to be a handsome groom?" Mrs. Beasley said when she walked into his room at the church.

"Thank you, ma'am." Vincent absently replied as Tseng helped him with his bowtie.

"Oh, don't you call me ma'am, I'm not one of those women." she told him. "It's a shame you're going off the market, it looks like Elena is quite lucky, but if I were 40 years younger, she wouldn't have a chance."

"Um, okay." Vincent felt his cheeks burning as the older woman looked pointedly at his crotch as she said that. He didn't want to tell her he was older than he looked, afraid of what she would do if she knew he was really not that much younger than she was. "Is…is Elena ready?"

"Smart women are _always_ ready." Mrs. Beasley smirked. She couldn't help but flirt just a little more with Elena's unusual looking husband-to-be.

* * *

The wedding went off without a hitch, and at the reception, Tifa caught the bouquet, much to Reno's dismay.

"Don't worry about it." Tifa reassured him. "It's just a bunch of flowers."

"Don't listen to her." Ellie Beasley teased him as she walked by them. "You could do a lot worse than Tifa though." Walking off, she smiled over how her meddling had finally paid off. She knew a happy couple in love when she saw it, and she expected an invitation to Reno and Tifa's wedding sometime in the next year.

* * *

"You did promise to put out more, didn't you?" Tifa asked when she and Reno got back to their place later that night.

"Just let me get out of this stupid tuxedo first." Reno smiled down at her.

"I'll help you." Tifa returned his smile as they undressed each other. "But first…" She hurried to the storage closet.

"What are you doing?" Reno followed his naked girlfriend.

"Can we put this up now?" Tifa held up her painting of them.

"Um, where?" Reno asked, surprised by her request.

"Our bedroom." Tifa suggested. "After all, it'll be just us watching ourselves having sex."

"There's no place for it." Reno pointed out.

"Well, let's just put it in there for now and worry about that later." Tifa had a mischievous glint in her garnet eyes that Reno found captivating.

"Whatever." he agreed, taking hold of the painting with one hand and grabbing hers with the other as they walked to their bedroom. "But now I've got to keep my word, don't I?" Reno sent the painting down leaning against the wall and pulled an unresisting Tifa to their bed.

"Yes, you do." Tifa kissed him, feeling as happy as she had ever been. The blank canvas her life had been once Cloud dumped was now painted in promising colors. Marlene and Denzel were alright with Reno, thinking of him as an uncle figure instead of a fatherly one, which made Reno feel more comfortable with them. Eventually he would propose to her, she was certain of that, but having a steady relationship was new to him, and in some ways for her too. She hadn't really been with Cloud even when they lived together. But Reno…he ended up being more of a decent guy than she had once thought. And she wasn't going to ruin her second chance for happiness. "What do you want me to cook for you afterwards?"

"Keep talking like that and I'll never let you leave!" Reno exclaimed, not seeing the triumphant smile on her face as he focused on the rest of her body.


End file.
